Home audio question.

[GoCommiesGo]

For any audiophiles out their. I've got a dolby 6.1 Reciever that I'm currently running to a set of old school tower speakers and a pioneer 8" powered sub off of. I bought a Pioneer surround sound setup.

My question is I want to be able to use the tower speakers to listen to music and use the surround sound front left/right sattelite speakers for movies. I would like to be able to do this without having to disconnect the leads of one set to use the other.

I tried a selector box from radio shack but the sound quality was horrible. Is their a better way to do this?

Thanks in advance.

[CHUBAKAH]

Turn off enhancment settings, and your 2 channel instead of 6. In other words, turn off all effects.

I hope this wasn't some, trick the poster thread.

[Blade]

I think Chewy has it right... use your best two speakers for your fronts.... put everything else on your center, surrounds, and back. When you only want to listen to music, use your 2 channel option.

Be sure to calibrate for cinema surround for your front speakers to accomodate the non-uniform speakers being used as fronts.

[Woofer]

I can't hear you. The music is too loud!

[GoCommiesGo]

Cool thanks for the info I'll give that a shot. The tower speakers for some reason didn't sound as clear in surround sound as the sattelites but sounded better w/ the music. Usually I only use it in the two channel mode unless I'm watching movies.

Thanks for the help.

[TK]

Originally posted by Woofer Magoo

I can't hear you. The music is too loud!

If it's too loud, you're too old. :cool:

[chuckflhp]

Hook up your surround sound speakers normally WITHOUT the towers. There's your surround setup.

Any decent 6.1 receiver will have a A&B speaker selector switch. Hook up your towers to the B connections on your receiver.

When you play music it will automatically switch to two channel mode. There is no surround signal to decode. Unless of course you ask it to synthesize one.

What speakers it comes out of will be determined by the switch.

And most surround receivers have a setting to determine the size of the speakers used. Either large or small. This dictates how much bass is put out by them and how much is sent to the sub. Play with it and decide which is best for you.

Hail :logo:

P.S. I'm not bragging, But I do have rather extensive experience and knowledge when it comes to home audio. If you would like, you could post the models of your equipment and I could tell you exactly what it is truly capable of. That would go for anyone else too.

[ntotoro]

I have an older Sony ES receiver with 6.1 and it has an "auto-format decode" function, or something like that.

I leave everything hooked up normally and it determines what to use based on the input device. When I use a DVD and the surround flags kick in, it does that. When I listen to a CD, it uses two-channels. When I watch TV it changes depending on whatever the broadcast flags are (HBO many times broadcasts movies in 5.1 surround, although it's not the full bandwidth). I use the digitial ouputs for all my digital devices (optical for my cd player and cable receiver, coax for my DVD player, although it has both).

Nick