2 channel audio with Yamaha rx-a3050 party mode

[Gary C]

Recently got the rx-a3050. Thought party mode would work same as older receiver, where you could listen to music in 3 zones in 2 channel stereo. With this receiver, main zone switches to 9 channel when you put in party mode. Can't find any way of changing to 2 channel in party mode. Anybody have knowledge of this unit, and whether this can be done?

 

[WaynePflughaupt]

Not sure I get the problem. If you want stereo music in three zones, then just switch the receiver to stereo mode. Party mode is only supposed to operate in the main room with the surround sound speakers. That’s the way it works with my current Yamaha receiver, which is eleven years old, and the one I had before that, which is fifteen years old. So I have to wonder – just how old is your “old” receiver?

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[Gary C]

Not sure I get the problem. If you want stereo music in three zones, then just switch the receiver to stereo mode. Party mode is only supposed to operate in the main room with the surround sound speakers. That’s the way it works with my current Yamaha receiver, which is eleven years old, and the one I had before that, which is fifteen years old. So I have to wonder – just how old is your “old” receiver?

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

Party mode is used to have the other zones play back the source you are playing in the main zone. But on the new rx-a3050 if you have the main zone set for 2 channel stereo and you select the party mode it automatically switches the main zone to 9 channel audio with no setting to switch to 2 channel. The rx-z11 I was using before you could press stereo when in party mode and change the main zone to 2 channel. Not so on the new rx-a3050.

 

[WaynePflughaupt]

Are you saying that if you have the 3050 in stereo mode you can’t use the secondary zones at all?

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[Gary C]

I was hoping that someone who has this unit would reply saying they had found a solution, which I have been unable to find, to the problem in my original question. In that when you are listening to music and switch to party mode to have the other zones on also, the main zone automatically switches to 9 channel, and there is no way to change it to 2 channel.
The other zones are on, it is just that the main zone is in 9 channel.

 

[herbu]

switch to party mode...the main zone automatically switches to 9 channel

I think by definition that's what "party mode" means. Other brands, like Denon, call it "All Channel Stereo". It turns on ALL speakers in your main zone. All "left" speakers get the left stereo channel. All "right" speakers get the right stereo channel. The Center speaker gets both.

I believe "Party mode" comes from the way it is usually used. When you have a room full of people, you want the music to be a fairly constant volume throughout the room. You don't want it real loud near your Front L/Rs, and real soft at the other end of the room.

 

[3db]

I was hoping that someone who has this unit would reply saying they had found a solution, which I have been unable to find, to the problem in my original question. In that when you are listening to music and switch to party mode to have the other zones on also, the main zone automatically switches to 9 channel, and there is no way to change it to 2 channel.
The other zones are on, it is just that the main zone is in 9 channel.

Listen to the advice posted. Its correct and correlates to your findings. Use stereo mode to go across all three zones.

 

[WaynePflughaupt]

I was hoping that someone who has this unit would reply saying they had found a solution, which I have been unable to find, to the problem in my original question.

Don’t know why you would expect that someone else with the same receiver would get a different result when the press the “Party” button on their remote. As previously noted, it’s no problem getting two-channel operation on both the main room and the secondary zones, if that is indeed what you are after. Is it really that big of a deal of you have to push a different button (or two) to get there?

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt