Limit Sound to Surround Back

sukotto85 · 15 Dec 2018 at 14:23

Hi All,

I am wondering if there's a way to switch off channel or have the sound play through lets say just the Surround Back speakers?

The reason I ask is, I have my Surround Back speakers above my PC setup, which I would like to use these as my primary PC speakers. At the moment I have turned down all the channel levels on all but the back speakers, and I have increased the volume on the back speaks to the maximum. But of course this method still has a small amount of sound being produced out of all the other speakers.

Thanks in advance.

Denon AVR-X4400H

hornetstinger · 15 Dec 2018 at 14:44

One way is if you had separate system and then just on the power amp for rear speakers and use a party mode which duplicates fronts to side and rears

sukotto85 · 15 Dec 2018 at 15:05

Thanks for your reply.

I have an Stereo Amp, which I use to power my floor standing speakers. I wouldn't want to connect and disconnect them based on what I was using it for. Is that the only option?

lucid · 15 Dec 2018 at 15:35

This is one of those rare occasions where, if you had a lower spec'd amp, then you might be able to do it it the settings using the Speaker Assign function.

The assignable speakers on your Denon are the height speakers. They can be software assigned to be either ATMOS or Zone 2 and Zone 3. With lower spec'd amps that don't do full 9.1 then the surround back speakers might have been switchable between Surround Back, ATMOS 5.1.2 and Powered Zone 2. So, the short answer is no, the amp doesn't have the facility built in.

It would be possible to use an outboard amp with two line inputs, then use that to feed the Surround Rear speakers. The source signals would be the pre-outs for SBL&R and Zone 2. It would need a bespoke remote control programme writing to handle the mode switching. That's some thing I could do, but I suspect that the space required for an extra amp and the cost of the remote and its programming would be too much compared to the cost of running a very nice set of desktop PC speakers.

whitecrook · 17 Dec 2018 at 15:14

pretty sure win 10 has an option for exactly this in the sound control panel, advanced options or soemthing. 'Route front audio to rear speakers' tick box or similar.

sukotto85 · 20 Dec 2018 at 14:37

Thanks for the responses.

whitecrook said:
pretty sure win 10 has an option for exactly this in the sound control panel, advanced options or something. 'Route front audio to rear speakers' tick box or similar.

I can't seem to find the option you're talking about.

whitecrook · 13 Feb 2019 at 14:37

sukotto85 said:
Thanks for the responses.

I can't seem to find the option you're talking about.

I think it might be a option built into the HP drivers ... Mines is an HP PC and the hp driver has this option right the in the system tray driver.