Okay, I have an idea. I have two receivers one 650 watt RCA and a 770-watt Pioneer 1014. I purchased 6 Sony SS-MB350H bookshelves about a month ago. Then I bought 2 Sony SS-MF750H towers for my mains. So I have two extra NEW NICE bookshelves doing nothing, and I hate to see them just sitting on the floor next to a active 200 watt RCA sub, 150 RCA watt passive sub (RCA Receiver has 150 watt output for passive sub) and a the RCA Receiver. All are in a corner collecting dust (with other additional speakers). Now comes the plan. The 1014 has a 7.1 pre outs and the RCA has 5.1 inputs. Now what if I used Y cables to connect the left surround and surround back signals to the left 5.1 input on the RCA and do the same with the right surround and surround back. Then put the extra bookshelves BETWEEN the 1014's surround and surround back speakers and then connect the two extra bookshelves to the RCA and select the 5.1 inputs. My theory is that since the speakers are getting a summed signal of the surround channels it makes a Dolby matrix like effect by being able to play both surround and surround back signals at the same time or separately if only one speaker is getting sound information. And then connect the extra active sub to the rear surround speakers via speaker cable inputs that way I wont lose any bass info from the both channels of the surround speakers. And then connect the passive to the RCA receiver (if it will send sound to it because of the 5.1 input). I already have everything I need so I don't have to go out and buy anything, but I just hate to see nice new speakers sitting there, collecting dust. I'm open to suggestions and criticism. The RCA is 100 watts a channel and the 1014 is 110 watts a channel, but I don't think that should make much of a difference since it's only ten watts more. My only concern is will the Y wires cause distortion? It should be a nice little experimental project for the weekend.
Oh yeah my 1000 watt yamaha sub has a rca sub out, should i connect that strait to the Active RCA sub or will the long wire runs (2 30ft cables) cause incorrect phase or signal degradation.
J. Vigne
Unregistered guest
Posted on
"My only concern is will the Y wires cause distortion?"
hahaha....i agree with vigne. there is way too much fuzzy science involved with this experiment of yours. just sell the extra speakers on ebay or setup another small system somewhere else. you got way too much time on your hands and way too much money to blow if you have that much extra audio equipment.
What, does it sound too complex. You have to experiment to acheive results, some of the best electronics in the world are the result of someone trying new things that "might work".
Only Mike
Unregistered guest
Posted on
You'll still have only 7.1 sound no matter what you do. You're only starting with 7 signals. By adding more speakers to a couple of channels only distorts your true surround matrix. You also may want to try to lift yourself off the ground by your shoelaces! :-) mz
That's why I said "Sim" that short for s-i-m-u-l-a-t-e-d which means "not actual, but a close representation". The additonal speaker would be able to play a different "sound" (both surround sound channels combined) than the other speakers, hence "sim 9.1". By the way it works much better than I expected, once I used my SPL meter to level all the speakers, it sounded really good. Final Destination 2 and Blade 2 DTS-ES soundtracks sounded phenomenal. As I expected the effect is more noticable with music. Definetly worth the 10min to set up.
That's why I said "Sim" that's short for s-i-m-u-l-a-t-e-d which means "not actual, but a close representation". The additonal speaker would be able to play a different "sound" (both surround sound channels combined) than the other speakers, hence "sim 9.1". By the way it works much better than I expected, once I used my SPL meter to level all the speakers, it sounded really good. Final Destination 2 and Blade 2 DTS-ES soundtracks sounded phenomenal. As I expected the effect is more noticable with music. Definetly worth the 10min to set up.
Well, all these Dolby, DTS etc a-r-e actually s-i-u-l-a-t-e-d surround sound. Having the actual action around or sitting in the middle of the concert would be real surround sound. o-k-? :-) mz
The additional speakers in the surrond proably the best part of it. almost gives enough speakers for everyone to have there own right left and center back speakers
The problem i could see with it is all the wires lying all over the place. The wife would kill me
Thanks! finally somebody appreciates a little creativity! And Mike z. do you just insist on on trying to make this a bad thing. I took on this project on for me, and did not ask anyone else to try it. And by the way I said sim "9.1" not sim surround sound, of course all surround souud is simulated :-).
