Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners AB speaker switching

Greetings.
My question is for 3805 owners...I am a proud new owner of said AVR and a brilliant pair of M80's. I also have a set of vintage 1986 AR94s that are currently being rebuilt which I would like to be able to run on a "B" channel. I don't want to run the A and B channel at the same time. Unfortunately for me, the manual of the Denon seems to be written in some language originating on a distant planet, or it is at least unclear on this subject. Am I missing something obvious?

Thanks
/Jack

My 2805 has a button on the front of the AVR labeled "Front Speaker". At least for my 2805, that will cycle through A,B, or AB options. I'm sure the remote will do the same thing, but your right the Denon manuals suck

www.partsexpress.com has a bunch of A/B switches just in case the 3805 won't do it.

hmmm part_sexpress? What kind of switch would that be sssssutherland

Jack, welcome. It's not clear what specific point you're uncertain about. The A and B speaker terminals on the 3805 are simply a parallel connection to the same amp channel; no second amp channel is involved. If the A and B speakers were run at the same time the parallel connection would result in a net impedance lower than 4 ohms(depending on the impedance of the AR94s)and probably would be troublesome. But if, as you say, you would just run one set at a time, there's no problem.

Jack, if you're still with us, the unclear point is how you're planning to use the AR94s. The only "B" provision on the 3805 is for a second set of surround speakers, so if that's what you have in mind it'll be okay, at least if you don't run A and B surrounds simultaneously. On the other hand, if you're thinking of using the AR94s as main speakers in another room, the "B" on the 3805 isn't relevant(as Randy mentioned, the 2805 does have an A/B provision for two sets of main speakers and might be a better choice if this is what you want to do). The 3805 does have a provision for assigning the 6th and 7th rear surround channel amps(if rear surrounds aren't being used)to instead power a set of main speakers in another zone.

Indeed, I am still here...work has kept me busy this past few days.
With regard to my desires for using the ARs. I wanted to use them in a true B fashion such as is possible on the 2805 when utilizing the conventional AB switch. It appears that unless I can somehow assign the rear surround channel to use the main amps while in Zone 2 mode that this isn't possible with the 3805. If I am correct in my interpretation of the manual, my only alternative is to purchase a seperate switch...this seems a shame with such a nice piece of hardware and I was hoping that I had missed something in the reading (of said manual).

Okay Jack, by "true B" I assume that you mean as main speakers in another room. One possibility is to return the 3805 and get the 2805 instead. Another is a fairly expensive switch which can handle the full amp power. If you're not using 6th and 7th back surround speakers now, you can assign those unused amp channels to power a second set of main speakers.