[The Furious One]

I just had a thought while posting about some speaker options in another forum. Someone tell me if this would be a good or bad idea!


Would it be all right to use a speaker selector to switch between surround modes? For instance, I have a Onkyo 707, and it has a lot of listening modes. As I've found with other receivers, some modes sound better for some movies than others, and I'm sure that's prob. the case with this receiver.


I obviously can't hook speakers for all the modes directly to the AVR, but I could run different pairs to a selector, and choose which set I'm going to be using for a particular sound mode.


Now obviously I wouldn't try to do something stupid, like have all extra pairs running simultaneously. Just one pair, for one surround mode. I'm really only seeing 2 potential problems with this idea. First would be, it would most definitely mess with the Audyssey calibration, and second, the few selectors I've looked at run at a 4 ohm load, so I would more than likely have to run an external amp. That way the AVR isn't seeing a 4 ohm load on just those 2 channels.


Any thoughts or ideas?


Brent

 

[ccotenj]

the immediate thoughts that spring to mind are:


1) why?


2) what do you hope to gain from this?

 

[The Furious One]



Quote:
Originally Posted by ccotenj /forum/post/18248149


the immediate thoughts that spring to mind are:


1) why?


2) what do you hope to gain from this?

In my way of thinking, which is probably wrong, doing something like this would allow me to maximize the amount of potential listening. Since my AVR only has 7.2 channel assignment, I can't switch from say standard TrueHD 7.1 to Dolby PLIIz without a major shift in speaker placement. Going from PLIIz to DSX wides wouldn't be too bad of a move, but I'm lazy and just rather push a button.


It's my experience that some movies sound better with one format than another. Doing something like this, if it would work, would give me a greater number of listening options.

 

[RCbridge]

Why don't you change the sound mode (for best sound) for what you are watching?

Trial and error!!

 

[ccotenj]

i suppose you could kludge something up... but how are you going to square it with audyssey? whatever benefit you might be getting by using different speaker layouts will be dwarfed by the destruction of the room correction...


if you really want to do this, replace the avr...

 

[The Furious One]



Quote:
Originally Posted by RCbridge /forum/post/18248231


Why don't you change the sound mode (for best sound) for what you are watching?

Trial and error!!

Yes, that's the simplest solution for a general setup with stationary speaker placement. If I would do that though, I'm stuck with in the limitations of that setup.


If I were to go with a standard 7.1 setup, with side and rear surrounds, all the drivers outside of the main LCR speakers are basically behind me. If I wanted to use the PLIIz or DSX wide format for certain movies or games, I would have to move a pair to the front for the heights or wides.


Using a selector would eliminate this problem. I could just choose the sound format I want, and hit a button on the selector to the corresponding speakers I need for it.


In theory, it's kind of like the new Onkyo 9.2 or Yamaha 11.2 AVR's. The only limitation between the setup I'm thinking of, and the new multichannel AVRs is the ability to use high and wide at the same time. That is, if those can even do that. I haven't looked that closely at them. The price tags scare me.

 

[The Furious One]



Quote:
Originally Posted by ccotenj /forum/post/18248317


i suppose you could kludge something up... but how are you going to square it with audyssey? whatever benefit you might be getting by using different speaker layouts will be dwarfed by the destruction of the room correction...


if you really want to do this, replace the avr...

I've already taken the Audyssey calibration into consideration, and that is the biggest downfall as far as I can see. The only real workaround that I see, albeit it being a PITA, is running the calibration for each layout, and writing those setting down and changing them as needed... It would be a hassle, but a hassle I could change from my remote.


Getting another AVR is simply out of the question for a few reasons. I'd rather spend the money on the speakers now because they don't change nearly as much as AVR's. I just bought my 707, and the cheapest 9.2 channel AVR is double what I paid for what I just bought. I don't know what Onkyo has up their sleeve for this year's lineup, but I'm betting we'll see 9 channel AVR's in their mid range line with in the next couple years. If I can get by til then, I'm all for waiting until the prices drop.


Last reason, the wife would crap frisbees if I spent another grand on a receiver when I just porked $500 on a new one a week ago.

 

[ccotenj]

to be blunt, you are tilting at windmills here... a tremendous amount of effort for very little gain...