Taking a 2 channel setup and making it a 5.1 rig.

[Joe D.]

Would it be crazy to add a small powered stereo amp for the rears and a mono amp for the center channel to my existing setup?

Of course, I would need three more speakers, then I could take advantage of the multi-channel discs I own.

This popped into my head right before I fell asleep last night.

Joe

[Gary]

That's what I am doing. I've bought some nice sounding vintage (early '80's) HK receivers. They are the same vintage as my HK 825 pre and 870 amp.

There are three channel amps out there, too. As well as 5 channnel, etc.

Of course I am only interested in music reproduction and I think Dolby and all those other fancy surround type stuff are meant for video. The advantage I hope to have is that it's all analogue - no digital volume controls, etc. In this case, the DVD-A player will do all my 5.1 stuff. No need for a 5.1 receiver.

I could be wrong, though. Anyone out there have any comments?

Gary

[Joe D.]

I'm only thinking of music too, Thanks for the tip on a three channel amp.
That would be the way to go.

Now for the next item, what speakers (small ones I'd think) would work well for the rears and center?

Thanks

Joe

[Gary]

Depends what you have now! They should match!

Something full range to avoid having to get a sub woofer.

Hopefully you have room in your listening area.

[Clay]

I have a really nice vintage Sony VFET 100 watt per channel amp that only works in 1 channel. I think it was over $1k new. I also have a nice ESS 100 watt per channel power amp - may be overkill for the rears yet it is vintage and fantastic clear as light sound. The Sony has a volume control, the ESS does not. send me a pm if you want me to put these up in the classified section.

I like the small B&W wall mount speakers for the rear or the ceiling mount units are nice too.

Another option is to use a used Marantz 5.1 receiver and run tape out to the stereo unit. or you could use the discrete 5 channels out.
I run a small Onkyo 5.1 receiver in the den with a tape out to the big stereo for 4 fronts for movies and great bass and just the Onkyo for TV.

I do not match my front main, center or rear on either of my 5.1 setups and it still sounds great for moives. Only listen to music in stereo.

[Michael St. Clair]

A bit of advice:

Ideal: Rear speakers are identical to mains.
Decent: Rear speakers use same tweeters as mains.
Worse: Rear speakers don't match mains at all.

[therockman]

The only potential drawback, and this is probably the most critical factor of 5.1 surround sound playback, is the volume control. Even if you have 3 vintage analog receivers fed by a 5.1 DVD/A or SACD disc player, the original sound mix was designed to be played back with an exact, pre-determined volume at each speaker. This "volume mix" factor is critical to the enjoyment of 5.1 music playback. If the rear speakers are 1 decible to loud or to low in comparison to the front speakers, then the whole mix is thrown off. Conversely, if the center channel or the front channel speakers are 1 decible to loud or to low compared with the rears, then again the whole experience is diminished. Even with all those old analog receivers (3 to provide enough amplification channels for 5.1), you will still need one master volume control, and this entails a 5.1 pre-amplifier.

[Gary]

Rocky, each vintage receiver has it's own volume control. It might be tricky to set up initially, but I think it can be done. And don't some DVD-V's have "test tones" or something to help set up the system (in all 5.1 channels)? I think it can be done!

Am I wrong? Well, I'll find out soon enough! :)

[therockman]

Yes, each vintage receiver does have its own volume control, and that is what I was referring to. Some times a person likes to listen to music loud, sometimes a person likes to hear music even louder, so each time the volume is adjusted, the relative volume of each bank of amlifiers has to be adjusted. Tricky, but not impossible.

[Cliff]

Joe, this is what I've added (well, I've just bought) to take my 2-channel only system to 5.1. Thanks goes to member "SamS" for pointing it out to me. It does absolutely NO processing. It's an all analog bypass preamp, with volume control. One of the 5.1 inputs even bypasses the volume control, so if you have an A/V preamp, it can still decode your satellite/DVD-V audio, etc. Really cool device.

http://www.stereophile.com/showarchives.cgi?700


But, they're very desirable, and hard to find.

[Strabo]

Originally posted by wags
If I may briefly hijack the thread...I have already converted to 5.1, but I am not utilizing my system at the optimum level.

Questions and concerns:

My Pioneer Elite 47ai is connected to my Anthem AVM-20 preamp via the analog outputs. Therefore, can I assume that the speaker volume adjustment settings and the distance settings that are set from the initial settings menu on the 47ai are not working?

If these settings are not working due to analog output instead of digital output, what is a solution?

I'm not familiar with the Pioneer, but my understanding is that yes, your player is making those distance and level calibrations.


Originally posted by wags
My AVM-20 also has speaker adjustments (volume and distance settings). Will these settings be in addition to the 47ai pre-sets, therefore further adjusting the volume and phase? Also, I generally use the Anthem with the analog direct setting. This does not allow any digital processing and I cannot even adjust bass or treble. I can only adjust general volume from this setting.

The Anthem is only working as a volume adjuster if you have it set to Anlg-Dir mode. Not even a bass/treble adjustment are available in that mode.
If you are not using Analog Direct then it is digitizing the signal and performing crossover and level adjustments.

For audio only I'd recommend the Anlg-Dir mode and use your analog in from the 47ai. Sadly, I think the DAC in my cheap Sony sounds better on CD's than the version 1 AVM-20 (waiting for my dealer to get mine upgraded).

For video/HT I use the digital link and allow the Anthem to calibrate the distances et all. The Anthem allows you to make level adjustments on the fly for all of the 5.1 channels. To much bass in a movie, click the sub button on your remote and bring it down a couple db's without having to stop to use any drop down menu's. It's pretty slick.

Also, if your using version 2.10 on the Anthem it allows you to set crossover points for each speaker instead of one setting for all. Great option if you have smaller rears speakers like I do.

Originally posted by wags
Anyway, any thoughts on how to better utilize my equipment would be greatly appreciated. I do have the option to take my analog outs from the 47ai and put them into digital processing within the Anthem preamp, but I'm not sure what I may be sacrificing in sound quality, if anything. This would at least (I think) give me the option to adjust volume and speaker distance issues.

My $.02, try out the digital connection just for kicks if not anything else and see what works best for you.