Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Technical Questions Connecting speakers to Denon AVR-3806

I have a few questions on setup; I will be soon making purchase of Axiom M60, QS4, VP100 and EP175.

How do I connect Denon avr-3806 for 6.1, I will be using surround back outputs for second zone, it is clear where I need to attach front , center and surround left and right (surround A), what I am not clear about is back center speaker, there is no clear documentation about this in manual or on their website. Thanks for your help in advance.

I'm not sure what you would do with the 3806 but on the 4806 you can specify how many speakers you have for the rear. Also, when you run Audyssey, it will pick up the number of speakers you have and their placement when it sends the signal out that particular terminal.

Wish I could be of more use but hopefully someone else will chime in. In either case, play with it to find out. Heck, that's fun in and of itself anyway. Congrats on your purchase and let us know what you think of your system once its up and running.

John

I'm a bit confused, you say "back center speaker"? the 3806 may be different than my 2805, but they are both 7.1 I believe. On the 2805 if I'm using a 7.1 setup in Zone 1, the rear channel speaker ports are not available for Zone 2 Stereo listening. However, if I use a 5.1 configuration in my HT room, then I can drive some second speakers at the same time in Zone 2 for music.

That is also my understanding. 5.1 plus zone 2 or 7.1 and no zone 2. Some of the denons do have extra speaker connections so you can run two pairs of rear speakers and switch between 7.1 and multizone, but AFAIK none of them will let you run 6.1/7.1 and multizone at the same time.

BBC, welcome. Possibly we've misinterpreted your post, but as both Randy and John have pointed out, if you mean that you're going to use the 6th and 7th amp channels to drive speakers in a second zone(instead of back surrounds), then there's no amp channel left to drive a back surround speaker.

I am sorry about not properly posting here, I will try again.

My room is wired for 6 speakers, three in the front including front right and left, front center and back right and left as well as back center.

In the back of AVR-3806 following outputs are available:

1. Two out puts for front left and right.
2. One out put for front center.
3. Two out puts for surround A, which as I understand it I will be using it for back right and left.
4. Two out puts for Surrond B, (This can be used if I want 7.1)
5. Two out puts for surround back, this can be used as a second zone to drive music etc, I will be using this out put for second zone and I can assign that in setup. Detailed image of back of this receiver is available on crutchfield.

Should I be using one of the right or left output from surround B to connect sixth speaker (back center)? Thank you all for reply and helping me out.

Here is some information from Crutchfields website. It appears this model does not have A/B option for your mains. However, it does offer an A/B option for your surround terminal. Reading below it sounds like this is for people that want the best of both worlds, movies and music. One discussion that comes up around here a lot is using the Qs8's for music (DVD-A and SACD). Most people like to use direct radiating speakers (bookshelves) versus the Qs8's. This option would let you use Qs8's for lets say surround channel A, and also direct radiating for surround B (when your listening to SACD's for example)

Also, if you read below, it mentions that you have the option to use your back channel for Zone 2 or 3, however, the back channels will not be available for 6.1 or 7.1.

To answer your question, I believe you can just hook up one surround to the back channel (for ex. 1 Qs8) as for the most part currently there is no DVD's that are done in 7.1 or above anyway. However, not sure what will happen in the future as this material starts to become available...



Dual Surround Speaker Mode: The AVR-3806 provides the ability to connect two different sets of surround speakers, and place them in the appropriate locations in your home theater room, so that you can enjoy both movie soundtracks and music listening, with optimum results and no compromise. If you play one pair of surround speakers at a time (Surround A or B), the minimum impedance of the connected speakers is 6 ohms. If you play both pairs of speakers simultaneously (Surround A + B), the minimum impedance of the connected speakers is 8 ohms.

Multi Zone/Multi Source Operation: This unit provides a Multi-Zone Output function and a Select function that let you output different sources to multiple zones. Multi-room Zone 2 can have a pre-amp output along with a composite video feed. You can make the Zone 2 Pre-amp output variable or set to -40dB or 0dB. Multi-room Zone 3 can have an independently selected audio source output with a fixed pre-amp output. The receiver's Power Amplifier Assign function lets you assign the 2 Surround Back amplifier channels to instead drive a pair of speakers in Multi-room Zone 2 or 3 with 120 watts per channel. When the amplifier channels are assigned to Zone 2 or 3, the receiver can still provide 5 discrete amplifier channels to drive all speakers in a 5.1-channel surround configuration.


Randy

BBC, the first point is that there're only seven amp channels available. Next, both the A and B surround outputs are for side(not back for 7.1)surrounds. As Randy discussed, some prefer direct radiating side surround speakers and others prefer wider dispersion surrounds(e.g. QSs). The A and B outputs allow the use of both types, either individually or together in parallel(still using just the two 4th and 5th amp channels). The 6th and 7th amp channels can be used either for back(not side)surrounds or they can be assigned to instead drive two main speakers in another location.

Using one of the B side surround outputs to drive a back center speaker would only send left or right side surround material to that speaker and wouldn't likely be a satisfactory effect. Use only the second zone connection or the back center, but not both.