Hi everyone. I have a question about setting up a receiver with a speaker system for both movies and music. I have M3's, VP 150, QS 4s, and a sub from another company. I'm running this with a Denon 1802. I've got the speakers set up normally and the sub hooked to the sub out. All speakers are set to small. Love the sound.
I occasionally want to hear just the M3s when I listen to music so....what signal does the B speaker terminal output? Does it mirror the signal sent to the A front terminal (in which case it will be rolled off at 80hz) or does it send out a full signal regardless of the settings used for A?

and...can I run a second set of speaker wires from the B output to the M3s and switch the speaker outputs on the receiver from A to B without hurting either the receiver or the speakers? What would happen if I accidently have both outputs switched on at the same time?

I do not own the Denon, but I believe that the easiest (and the most legitimate) way of listening to music through the front L/R speakers only is simply to set the surround mode to "stereo" or "direct." If a receiver has both these settings, usually the "direct" mode will turn off the subwoofer and all other signal processing by the receiver so that it acts like a pure-analog stereo integrated amp. The "stereo" mode usually engages the sub, so it works as a 2.1 setup.

By the way, in my book, the only dumb question is a question unasked...

There is no "Direct" mode with this receiver. There is "Stereo", but as you said it will engage the sub.

Connecting A & B to the same speaker sounds a bit alarming. I wouldnt do in myself. I agree with what sushi suggest just set it up in stereo mode. Yes the sub is on but you can easily turn it off and set the M3 back to large. Although a pain in the butt thats what I normally do when in music mode. Whats 20-25 seconds to change the setting to get a better sound.

One thing to note is that most bookshelves will gain better mids and highs (possibly more depth and stage) when you send your LF signals to a sub. Sending the LF to your sub makes you bookshelve easier to drive and give it a little more on mids and highs. I use my M22 & Mirage bi-polar sub and crossover at 65. Set my speakers to small. When I only use my M22 I set my speakers to Large.

Saturn

What I'm trying to do is not have to turn the sub off and on. I'm afraid of mucking up the levels I carefully set using a sound meter and the Sound and Vision disk. I'm hoping that I can bypass the sub and hear the main speakers running in large mode.

Hi dazed,

Why can't you access the receiver menu and switch the sub to "Off" and the stereo left and right mains to "Large"?

Do not connect the A and B speaker outputs to your M3s at the same time. The receiver's amp for the main channels would then "see" the nominal impedance of the M3s (8 ohms) plus the impedance of the B speaker output (whatever circuitry/switching is there) and the extra speaker cables. Whatever interaction might result is not desirable. And I hesitate to predict what would happen to your amp's output section should you ever inadvertently have both switched on simultaneously. Nothing good.

Regards,