AVR with Zone 2 and A/B switching

[BrettMendes]

I'm looking for an AVR that has zone 2 capabilities and a/b switching for my parents. I haven't had any trouble finding something with a powered zone 2, but it seems like manufacturers have done away with avr's that have a/b switching as well (previously they had a Marantz SR6006 but it died). They have two speakers in their living room and two speakers on the opposite side of a wall that allow them to listen to music in the family room (it does not need to be a discrete second or third zone, hence the a/b switching). They also have two outdoor speakers that do need a discrete second zone. I was looking at maybe doing the emotiva UMC-200 and feeding the front r/l, zone 2, and zone 3 into a upa-700. Can anyone think of something a little less expensive? The speakers they have are all pretty benign loads.

 

[Adam]

Hi, Brett. When your parents listen in the family room, do they turn the speakers off in the living room?

If they don't turn them off, and if you can't find a receiver with A/B switching that you like, you could also consider using the "All Channel Stereo" (or equivalent) feature on a receiver that doesn't have A/B outputs. Your parents would normally run the system in stereo mode to use the two speakers in the living room, but they would turn on that surround sound mode to then play the same signal through both sets of speakers.

If they do turn them off, you could also consider getting a speaker selector box. Those have buttons on the front to choose the set of speakers that they want. The less expensive ones are manual, so they'd have to push the buttons (no remote control), but they cost about $20-$40.

 

[Stanton]

If they don't turn them off, and if you can't find a receiver with A/B switching that you like, you could also consider using the "All Channel Stereo" (or equivalent) feature on a receiver that doesn't have A/B outputs. Your parents would normally run the system in stereo mode to use the two speakers in the living room, but they would turn on that surround sound mode to then play the same signal through both sets of speakers.

Good idea! Even old AVR/DSP amps have something like a "party" sound field that does something similar: sends the same (stereo) signals to the front and rear (pair) speakers.