A receiver that allows stereo or surround sound?

[Billmelater]

Hi, everyone. I’m old-to-stereo but new to surround sound and the newer receivers. I would appreciate some advice on how to move from an “older” configuration to a newer one.

I currently have a single receiver (Yamaha R-8) that serves 2 purposes:

• Traditional stereo : Polk RTA-11T speakers, Sony CDP 608ESD CD player, ASUS netbook for mp3, wma playback
• HDTV: with Cambridge Soundworks Ensemble speakers (2 small + subwoofer), Sony DVD player

The systems are in different ends of the same room and the speakers are selected via the Speaker A/B switch on the receiver. I realize this is less than ideal but it’s what I have to work with. The main use of the system is stereo listening.

I would like to upgrade the receiver (looking at Yamaha RX-V671 for example) and TV speaker system (surround sound) but I can’t find a receiver that can accommodate this combined setup (A/B switches are soooo passé). I’d also like to add a powered subwoofer to the Polk speakers. Receivers with multiple zones seem to place limits on how a second zone can be used (analog sources only) and don’t have provision for a subwoofer. It would work if a receiver with “scene” buttons could be configured so that one scene is stereo listening and drives the Polks plus a subwoofer but I haven’t been able to determine if that’s possible from the documentation.

Am I going in the wrong direction here? Are there “surround sound” speaker systems that are musical enough so that I don’t need the Polks anymore? These would have to be much smaller than the Polks because of where the TV is.

Thanks for any suggestions.

 

[markw]

It's to bad you refuse to accept using A/B switches. That would be your simplest solution. Add a powered sub-woofer with speaker-level inputs and you'd be all set.

Pity...

Oh, you certainly can fine multi-channel speaker that do music very well, but they aren't necessarily cheap or small. The way to find them is,when shopping, use music as your test source, not a movie soundtrack. If a speaker does music well, odds are 99.99/100 it will do HT at least as well.

Oh, and you might want to forgo using a subwoofer in the selection stage using music. A sub can be added at any time.

 

[Billmelater]

Thanks. I am considering an outboard A/B switch. I just wish there was a receiver with it built in. And I hadn't thought about speaker level inputs for a subwoofer but I should have since that's what the Cambridge set does.

 

[markw]

As far as I know, A/B switches on AVR's aren't difficult to find. In fact. I'd say it's probably more of a task to find one without them.