A friend of mine purchased a 5.1 setup then got convinced by the sales person to go "7.1" by adding another Centre Channel speaker for the rear. Since his receiver has seperate speaker outputs for Rear L /R how would you recommend connecting the single Centre Channel speaker ?

I would have prefered he add another pair like the ones he uses for surrounds, but that's not the case.

Thanks

Stephane

if he added only 1 rear center channel and not 2 rear effect speakers/channels then he only has 6.1.
Jake

Yes, that is true, hence why I " bracketed " the "7.1"..

I'm just trying to figure out how to connect it to the receiver.

Stephane

I'm a little confused, if your friend purchased a 5.1 system, it is not capable of 6.1 or 7.1, you can't just add a speaker? Most likely the jacks your referring to are for a second zone (room) and can't be used for surround.

Riker,

I believe you are saying that he bought a 5.1 system. In addition to the 5.1 system the salesman convinced him to buy another centre channel speaker to place in the middle rear for a 6.1 system.

If this is the case, then it doesn't matter which input you put the rear speaker into (just not another zone), the receiver should be able to be set to a "6.1" system and you can assign the rear 6th channel to that input (I think).

There is no "Rear" Channel(s) in a 5.1 AVR:
5.1 - Left/Right/Center/Left Sur./Right Sur. and Sub (.1)

6.1 - Left/Right/Center/Left Sur./Right Sur./Rear Cent/ Sub

7.1 - Left/Right/Center/Left Sur./Right Sur./Left Rear/Right Rear/Sub

So a 5.1 receiver does not have a channel for the "Rear" location, whether it be 6.1 or 7.1.

I think that he bought the 6.1 speaker setup separatly from the receiver. From the sounds of it he has a 7.1 receiver...

haha, this is getting kinda funny.

Sorry, the starting post is unclear. Anyway, if he does in fact have a 7.1 receiver, than yes he can use it for 6.1. The manual should show him which "rear" jacks to use for a 6.1 scenario. The receiver brand/model was not mentioned so it is hard to speculate.

My manual said to enable the rear center speaker in the settings and then plug the speaker into the SB-Left channel. I think it even says right on the back panel of my receiver which one is the surround center channel.

Jason, from memory, that sounds (no pun intended) similar to what my Denon manual states. I have 7.l so didn't have to worry about it. I think my setup menu gives you the options for 1 OR 2 speakers for the "Rear" channel. If you select 1, then you use the left channel. Other receivers may be a little different, but the manual should clear things up, or the salesguy that made the sale.

>>or the salesguy that made the sale.

Yes, that is a good idea, Tell your friend to phone the salesman and ask him which speaker inputs to use for the "7.1" rear channel speaker.

Better yet, tell your friend to return all the speakers and talk to Alan who will actually know what he is talking about!

You know, my post, ie: this post, has though me a few things: the more information you provide, the better the chance of an accurate response even if it was supposed to be an easy question to answer. Obviously in this case, I did not provide enough information. Also, it though me another thing, that I was to lazy to surf to the Marantz web site and download the SR8500 manual in PDF format and look at the section where it talks about setting up a 6.1 system.

So, now that I have the answer, I will non the less put in the information that I should have put in the first place, at the very least it will serve as a point of reference to my original question. Lesson learned.


Marantz SR8500 7.1 receiver (125W X 7 channels)
Dalhquist QX9 front L/R
Dalhquist QX60C Centre Channel
Dalhquist QX5 Surrounds
Dalhquist QS125 Subwoofer
Dalhquist QX60C Rear Center Channel.

Oh hell, I got that one completely wrong, I thought he bought a 5.1 capable receiver and got suckered into buying a 6th speaker and wanted to know how to hook it up to the two existing surround channels. I was going to come back to this tonight when I had a clear head to figure out if you would go SL+ into RC+ then SR- into RC-... or, ah, my brain hurts again.

Bren R.