Can you get "surround sound" through just 4 speakers?

Raymond Lin

Raymond Lin

Raymond Lin

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I got my dented Pioneer VSX-921 swapped over to the VSX-2021 (albeit I have to swap this one AGAIN due to the right analogue CD channel has a loose connection and only work if i hold the Interconnector in place).

Anyway. I have it wired through stereo at the moment. But i have some small micro hifi speakers lying around and thought I wire it up for the 2 rear surround speakers and see if i can get a 4.0 surround sound set up.

Nothing. Nada. Zilch.

No sound coming through the rear, the menu still showing stereo. Do I need to complete the set and get a centre and a sub in order for it to out put the other 3.1 channels?




On the side note, the Musical Fidelity X-A2 has arrived, this little thing is amazing !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
Apparently you can get surround sound through 1 speaker lol one of those speaker bars they're currently advertising on TV.


1____2

__0___

3____4

ignore the _ underscores, it's the only way the forum would let me draw it. Thats about as surround sound as I think you could get with 4 speakers lol if you placed them in all 4 corners of the room lol (by the way 0 is a person for the purposes of the diagram lol)
 
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You almost certainly need to change the setting on the amp. If you have it in Stereo it'll only output in stereo. Need to put it into Dolby, or if it has it, a 7 channel stereo mode.

Cant imagine why you would want to do this without a centre or sub though, would sound awful.
 
Jano said:
You almost certainly need to change the setting on the amp. If you have it in Stereo it'll only output in stereo. Need to put it into Dolby, or if it has it, a 7 channel stereo mode.

Cant imagine why you would want to do this without a centre or sub though, would sound awful.
Click to expand...

I only want to test if it works, I plan to do the whole hog eventually with 5.1 but I only got the amp today so want to test out all four channels.

Thanks for the tip about the setting though, I was looking for that but I can't seem to find it by "looking on the remoe".

I am inputting via HDMI.
 
I don't do Pioneer, so I can't help with the specific settings.

If your source is stereo then you're looking for a stereo expander mode like DPLIIx or some other DSP mode.

If you want 5.1 to play properly, you'll want to go into speaker setup and turn on phantom centre and LFE to front speakers.

If you had a Yamaha I could tell you all the buttons to press :p

You might have to :eek: read the manual :eek: :D
 
Stop wasting time farting about with surround settings and input signals.

Just go in to the speaker set up menus and use the test tones. That will show you instantly if you have the speakers connected correctly.

Front L&R - Full
Center - None
Surround - Small
Rear Surround - None
Sub - to whatever you have, it's either Yes of No

Then get the tones on and cycle round the speakers - Front left, front right, rear right, rear left, (sub if fitted), front left and so on and so on

If there's no sound from the rear speakers then, Raymond, go look at the manual and plug then in the correct holes.
 
Does your receiver have a matrix mixer or something so you can mix the C channel into L & R channels?

5.1 without mixing will be annoying as you won't be able to hear the centre channel, which is where 99% of dialogue comes from.
 
i think you need to get your wires all done (prosuming you have done) and then do a sound test on the amp. Once its done it will know how many speakers you have attached to your amp.

You should then get the option of surround or stereo.
 
Jay794 said:
Apparently you can get surround sound through 1 speaker lol one of those speaker bars they're currently advertising on TV.


1____2

__0___

3____4

ignore the _ underscores, it's the only way the forum would let me draw it. Thats about as surround sound as I think you could get with 4 speakers lol if you placed them in all 4 corners of the room lol (by the way 0 is a person for the purposes of the diagram lol)
Click to expand...

You said 'lol' 4 times in this post. I am depressed :(
 
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