[Jinn2000]

Gents,


I have a basic question that for some reason I am not understanding. I purchased a 4308 a few months back and love the unit, and am now hooking up a set of in ceiling speakers in the kitchen and wanted to use one of the other zones to power them. My confusion comes in when I try and figure out the amp assignment. I currently am in the process of installing surrounds and WANTED to run the surround "back" speakers as well, so basically a 7.1 setup not using the surround b's. From what I am reading in the manual, it appears as though I cannot use the "back" speakers if I turn on either Zone 2 or 3. Is this true? I DO NOT want to use both Zones 2 and 3, I am only powering 1additional set of speakers in another zone. I see a diagram in the manual actually showing a similar set up, and a footnote at the bottom saying that by default the Zone 2 is set to on and if you wanted to use the back speakers to either turn off Zone 2 or assign another amp. I just needed to know if I can run 7.1 with the "back" surrounds if I configure the kitchen in ceiling speakers to use either Zone 2 or 3. I apologize about the probably ridiculous question, and I think a searched enough to ask. Thanks in advance for your time.


Jinn

 

[bashton]

Jinn--


I've been poking around the Denon / Yamaha boards with a similar question.


I'm looking at a 7.1 main zone, two 2 ch (stereo) zones and another 2 ch (stereo) pair of outdoor speakers.


From what I've seen and read, without going into the Yamaha Z11 class, this is hard to do concurrently. What I THINK is, that with the Denon 4308, you can CONNECT those other zones to either Surr B or Amp Assign, just not run them concurrently. The key is the receiver has 7 amps, so even thought you can connect more 'channels' -- 9 I think in this case, once you turn on zone 2, you lose Surr Back, if you turn on zone 2 & 3 you lose Surr & Surr Back. That's my interpretation of the Denon 'Advanced 7.1 CH/5.1+2 CH/ 3.1+2+2' terminology.


As I think through my (future) usage, I think that's ok, I don't see using 7.1 and listening to 2 ch audio at the same time, I just don't want to have to change connections.


Right now, my low-tech solution is to use a low-end Sony 2ch receiver to drive my two audio only zones. It's a cheap solution, but I'm leaning towards a receiver with more speaker connections to take advantage of speaker capabilities. That keeps pushing me up into the Denon 4308 / Yahama Z7 class.


My two cents............




bashtonsj

 

[bashton]

Some more of my thoughts on this:


-- there is part of me that thinks I want three zones (Main 7.1 & two 2) with the ability to 'toggle' SP A & B for my outside speakers. As my outside speakers are right outside my FR, I don't see wanting to have different zones for outside and inside. I may want more power, with has me thinking a separate zone and ext amp instead of speaker level connections, but I digress.


-- where I'm torn is how to manage my Kitchen and Living Room, where I do want separate audio-only zones. As I mentioned above, right now, I'm using a two ch receiver, which has some benefits (don't need to turn on 'main' AVR), can just tune radio, etc, but by definition, it's limited and can't take advantage of whatever my next gen receiver is. The main listening I'll want in those two rooms is music -- so I want to access my streamed mp3. So, my thinking has changed, if I can hookup those rooms via speakers (assignable) and then send a zone signal for outside, that might do it.


It seems that takes me to Yamaha Z7 / Denon 4308 and above.



Done now.



bashtonsj