This may sound like a stupid question but I am really new to this. I have a KLH 6.1 receiver and an Onkyo 6.1 speaker package. When the speakers are all hooked up no sound ever comes out of the rear speaker nor is it detected on the receiver screen. When I run the test on the speakers it doesn't detect it then either. I checked the connections and they are fine. Is that speaker only used when playing back audio recorded in 6.1? I really appreciate anything anyone can tell me
The receiver probably only turns that speaker on when it detects the ES (extended surround) channel. Try playing a DVD that is DTS-ES like Rush Hour 2 and see if it turns on. There might be a setting in a menu somewhere too, check the manual.
Does your receiver have a "test" mode? (Most home theatre receivers do.) If so, the surround center should DEFINITELY work. While it's true that an overwhelming majority of source material is NOT encoded for 6.1, and thus, the center surround will be silent, it should absolutely work in the test mode.