I have a Samsung HDTV and a TEAC DRH300DAB. This box gives me DAB radio and upscales DVD to the TV. I have two Mordaunt Short speakers. When I first assembled this rig I intended the TV to be the centre speaker. Due to decode delays this is not possible (delay=echo). The TEAC has two L/R audio outputs and a subwoofer o/p which I am not using - pleanty of rich bass already. Would I benefit from a passive centre speaker and, if so, could it be connected to my TEAC box and how? Presumably the woofer single terminal o/p is solely for low frequency. I have this window of opportunity to get all cabling tidied before new carpet is fitted!
If you do not have an ouput for a center channel then it is not recommended that you attempt to connect more than one speaker to the speaker outputs you have as this may damage your receiver. A center channel is normally used with a 5.1 decoder and up and is mostly responsible for dialogue when used. If your receiver is stereo you really would not be accomplishing anything by adding a center channel. If you are interested in surround sound and would like to use dolby pro logic II, IIx, Dolby digital, or DTS then you would want to invest in a 5.1 or higher receiver that will decode those formats for you. In that situation a center channel would serve a purpose. Is your receiver Stereo?
Jeffrey. Thanks for this. The TEAC is stereo (plus the subwoof). In my temp set up the speakers are about 5 feet apart but the plan is to separate them (on purpose designed stands) at about 10 feet apart. Given the layout of the room there will be no-one sitting on the sweet spot. For DVD viewing this is not an issue - given the usually high quality multi channel soundtrack. With ordinary TV viewing, the majority of satellite digital channels broadcast in cr*p sound and it was in this instance that I thought that some sort of noise from the TV area might compensate for imbalance.
Ok, this can be done using an impedance matching speaker selector that is protection enabled but the center channel would only be connected to either the left or right channel so in essence you would have either 2 left speakers or 2 right speakers. Remember that regardless of what source you use you are still only getting stereo output be it DVD or Sattelite receiver. Multi-channel output is of no use to you because you do not have a receiver that is capable of deciphering that signal. Think of it this way in a stereo setup you have 2 speakers and each of them have their own unique sound coming from them so you only need 2 speakers to accomodate that. In a 5.1 setup you have 5 speakers and one sub with each of those speakers having their own unique sound coming from them this is what is meant by multi channel. The receiver you do this with has to be capable of receiving the digital signal from the source and separate those sounds into the 5 channels that send the sound to the 5 speakers. The only reason to have more than 2 speakers in a stereo setup would be if you wanted to feed multiple rooms. You will accomplish what you are trying to do by just turning the volume up on the TEAC. Also the impedanse matching speaker selectors are expensive so you would really be better off investing that money in a 5.1 or higher decoder as this does seem like what you are really trying to do. This is apparent by your statement that multichannel dvd output is somehow useful to you but it is really not.
Jeff. Again thanks. I'll set everything in its final resting place and see what the day to day reaction is from the listeners. If they complain then I'll move to a 5:1 in due course.