I made some changes

[admin_exported]

Upto recently I had my reciever set up for 7.1 output. What I did was remove the frontspeakers and connect the front L&R pre-outs to a seperate stereo amp to drive the front speakers. I removed the surround back speakers. The thing is I think (I'm sure) I notice an improvement in the sound overall even though i'm using less speakers. Can anyone confirm/reject my theory which is that although the reciever states it has 7 channels of 100w, which i was using, it now only has to drive the centre and SL&SR, 3 channels. Does this put slightly less demands on the amp making it easier to power the remaining 3 channels resulting in the sound improvement.

 

[Anonymous]

I've experimented with losing the surround backs so I could bi-amp the front speakers.
I also feel the overall sound was better and also an improvement with music, but by doing this I lost the option for Dolby Prologic IIX which I use on TV channels that are not in Dolby Digital, so I put it back how it was.

 

[Anonymous]

Del Smith:I lost the option for Dolby Prologic IIX which I use on TV channels that are not in Dolby Digital

That's because IIX is 7.1, with 5.1 just useÿDolby Prologic II with TV.

 

[Anonymous]

Octopo:
Del Smith:I lost the option for Dolby Prologic IIX which I use on TV channels that are not in Dolby Digital

That's because IIX is 7.1, with 5.1 just useÿDolby Prologic II with TV.

Yes I knew I would lose the option, but I prefer the sound in IIX for TV, therefore I put it back. So had to compromise.

 

[Gerrardasnails]

Luke Kenobi:Upto recently I had my reciever set up for 7.1 output. What I did was remove the frontspeakers and connect the front L&R pre-outs to a seperate stereo amp to drive the front speakers. I removed the surround back speakers. The thing is I think (I'm sure) I notice an improvement in the sound overall even though i'm using less speakers. Can anyone confirm/reject my theory which is that although the reciever states it has 7 channels of 100w, which i was using, it now only has to drive the centre and SL&SR, 3 channels. Does this put slightly less demands on the amp making it easier to power the remaining 3 channels resulting in the sound improvement.

I'm not sure I understand this. Why did you need to remove the surround back speakers? I doubt very much that the amp is working less that is making your set up sound better.

If you have a stereo amp and a 7.1 system, I would expect you to have your front left and right speakers connected to your stereo amp and then your stereo amp connected (using stereo interconnects) to your receiver's front left and right pre outs. You can still connect your centre and surroud speakers to your receiver as normal.