Marantz SR5008 Zone 2 Volume Issues

[wdebjr]

I recently purchased the SR5008 to replace my also recently purchased Onkyo TX-NR626. I did so b/c the Onkyo does not play audio in Zone 2 from digital sources. I have a 5.1 setup in the living room w/ 2 front speakers, 2 rear speakers in the ceiling & a sub. My Zone 2 speakers are two Russound outoors & three Russound speakers in the hallway, kitchen & sun room. I have an AudioSource AMP 100 connected to the SR5008 via the Zone 2 RCA input and a 6 channel speaker selector w/ volume control.

The only way I can get any sound from my Zone 2 speakers is if I turn on the same source for all zones (at work & don't remember the exact verbiage.) I cannot get sound by simply powering on Zone 2 and selecting a source. When I am able to get sound via the above method, it is barely audible.

W/ my old receiver - a Denon 2808, the only way I could get sound to my Zone 2 speakers would be to enable 7.1.

My ideas as to the cause of this issue (I have no idea what I am talking about):
-Using the Audyssey mic to set up my system has prevented me from sending power to the Zone 2 speakers
-5.1 is preventing power from being routed to Zone 2
-The AudioSource Amp or the speaker selector is throttling down the power to the zone 2 speakers

Again, I have no idea & would greatly appreciate any and all advice!

Thanks for your time & have a good afternoon,

Whit

 

[crossedover]

Your still dealing with zone2. All that will play is what you select as zone 2 source. If you want separate sources for each zone you need a multi zone receiver and amp or speaker selector with independent zones.

 

[j_garcia]

I recently purchased the SR5008 to replace my also recently purchased Onkyo TX-NR626. I did so b/c the Onkyo does not play audio in Zone 2 from digital sources. I have a 5.1 setup in the living room w/ 2 front speakers, 2 rear speakers in the ceiling & a sub. My Zone 2 speakers are two Russound outoors & three Russound speakers in the hallway, kitchen & sun room. I have an AudioSource AMP 100 connected to the SR5008 via the Zone 2 RCA input and a 6 channel speaker selector w/ volume control.

The Amp100 is not a bad little amp, but 6 speakers is likely too much for it; it is only 50WPC after all. Try powering just 2 of them. Which speaker selector? Remove it from the equation as well and see if one pair works.

The only way I can get any sound from my Zone 2 speakers is if I turn on the same source for all zones (at work & don't remember the exact verbiage.) I cannot get sound by simply powering on Zone 2 and selecting a source. When I am able to get sound via the above method, it is barely audible.

If I am not mistaken, this is correct and the same thing I've seen with most receivers. The output is not a pass-thru, so you need to have the main zone on for other zones to get sound. There's no getting around that as far as I know (unless someone came out with one lately that does that). Note also that other zones usually have a separate volume control for them from the main area.

W/ my old receiver - a Denon 2808, the only way I could get sound to my Zone 2 speakers would be to enable 7.1

To me, this means you have the receiver configured incorrectly IIRC. The outputs need to be assigned to zone 2, usually because the signal is pulled from the rear channel signal path.

My ideas as to the cause of this issue (I have no idea what I am talking about):
-Using the Audyssey mic to set up my system has prevented me from sending power to the Zone 2 speakers

This one is a possibility. As above, you may need to reconfigure the output assignments explicitly to zone 2 rather than surround back and Audessey may have turned them down or off.

-5.1 is preventing power from being routed to Zone 2
-The AudioSource Amp or the speaker selector is throttling down the power to the zone 2 speakers

The first is definitely not it, but see above regarding removing the speaker selector for testing.

 

[wdebjr]

Thanks for the replies, I really appreciate it. I can select different sources for Zones 1 & 2, its just that I only get sound right now when I have the same source for all zones turned on. This is probably the result of something I have done, not the design of the receiver.

The SR5008 has a powered Zone 2 & only running 5.1, it should supply plenty of oomph for the Zone 2 speakers. It was a while ago, but I believe w/ my Denon I had the Zone speakers wired directly to the AMP so it may be the speaker selector- I believe it is a Russound but not sure. W/the Denon, I got plenty of volume out of the Zone 2 speakers, I just could not control the volume or turn on/off each individual speaker which is why I got the selector w/ volume control.

What do you all think about switching to 7.1 then either wiring the amp or speaker selector to the Surround Back speaker output terminal & not the Zone 2 RCA connectors? That is one of the options for wiring the Zone 2 speakers in the Owner's Manual & I believe that is what I did w/ the Denon & it worked well, I just couldn't control the volume or turn off each speaker in Zone 2.

Thanks again for the advice.

 

[j_garcia]

You explained you are using the Amp100, which would suggest you are not powering the other zones with the receiver. That's why I said insufficient power isn't the issue, because the receiver should not be providing ANY power to them. I own an Amp100 and it does not have speaker level inputs, so how do you have it connected to the receiver? You said RCA to the zone 2 outputs, which would be correct - though there may be something you need to configure in the setup menu on the Marantz to make sure the zone 2 signal is being output via that output.