[lhousesoccer]

OK, I'm the "technical" one in the family, and that's not saying alot. I can set up most things, but I'm a bit stumped on this one.


My brother-in-law bought a "stereo in a box" setup from Best-Buy for his cottage. It's a Yamaha RX-V371, and came with 5 speakers and a subwoofer. I hooked it up his Samsung bluray and his Samsung wall-mounted flat screen.


However, he also bought 2 sets of outdoor speakers so he can mount one set on the deck on the west side of the cottage, and the other set on the east side of the cottage by the firepit.


The RX-V371 only has a single set of speaker outputs on the back:

Front L&R

Center

Rear L&R


So, he picked up a speaker selector (4 bank) but this is where I'm stumped.


The selector only has one set of inputs - Left and Right (pos & neg). Then each of the 4 banks has Left and Right + and - outputs.


How can I hook up the receiver to get the full 5.1 channel effects on the TV, and still be able to switch over to outdoor speakers when desired, where there's only a single output on the back?


For reference, here's the back of the RX-V371:

And the specs on the receiver:
http://usa.yamaha.com/products/audio-visual/av-receivers-amps/rx/rx-v371_black__u/?mode=model"]http://usa.yamaha.com/products/audio-visual/av-receivers-amps/rx/rx-v371_black__u/?mode=model


Thanks for any advice.

 

[jdsmoothie]

That's only a 5.1 HTIB. He should return it and get a 7.1(5.1+Zone 2 or Front B) AVR that allows 5.1 in the main zone and the speaker selector would be connected to the Zone 2 or Front B speaker posts. This would then allow an independent "analog" source to the outdoor speakers while another source is playing in the main over the 5.1 speakers.


If upgrading the HTIB is not an option or desired, then an alternative solution would be to use the 371 "5-CH Stereo" mode and either get another 2 zone speaker selector or get a 3 or 4 zone speaker selector to play the same source in the main zone to the outside speakers. If getting another 2 zone speaker selector then connect it to the surround speaker inputs on the 371 and then connect the "side" surround speakers from the 5.1 HTIB to one set of outputs on the speaker selector and the other speaker selector to the other set of outputs. Then connect the 2 sets of outdoor speakers to that 2nd speaker selector outputs. If getting a 3 or 4 zone speaker selector then connect that selector to the 371 surround inputs and connect each of the 3 sets of speakers to the outputs on that speaker selector.

 

[lhousesoccer]

Smoothie - thanks for the info. I'll try to convince my brother-in-law to take thie 5.1 back and get a 7.1. If that's not an option, I'll try the speaker selector thing and see how it goes.

 

[lhousesoccer]

One follow-up question. You said with a 7.1 system, I could play a separate source over the outdoor speakers while someon was watching TV for instance on the 5.1 speakers inside. How can I have two output sources playing at once on the receiver, on 2 different sets of speakers, and do I still need a separate speaker selector switch? Sorry for being so thick ....