AV Receiver output options for multi-room speakers

[David Ramos]

Before you bash my noobness, please accept my apologies for placing this request, in what might be the wrong forum. But here goes...

I have speakers in the garage, in the deck, in the living room, in a library and in the kitchen. I made the mistake (I think) of purchasing an AV Audio Receiver with internet and a few more input sources because I want to play from Apple TV and my laptop. The new receiver is Onkyo AV Receiver TX-NR636 what appears to be surround sound home theater setup. You know - front, center, rear speaker where different audio comes out of each set of speakers. I had mickey-moused the previous AV and speakers so that they all exported the same sound level. In the deck, garage and kitchen, I had volume control so that I could get the sound level just the way I want.

This new receiver has Center, Front, Heightened/Rear setup and well it's gotten complicated. Is there an easy fix that I could use like a Speaker Selector so I can get the same sound level out of all the speakers? I threw the box away in excitement.

 

[David Ramos]

I guess I found the answer. These jerks at Onkyo didn't supply me with the Full Owner's Manual. I read that Mono audio output is an option with Movie/TV and I'll leave it in that setting for now. All audio sources and all speakers are working at the same level.

 

[herbu]

If you want stereo, (distinct left & right channels), in each room, you can also use your Multi-Channel setting.
Your TX-NR636 is a 7.2 receiver... that means you have 7 speaker outputs plus 2 subwoofer outputs. Your 7 speaker outputs are split into 3 pair, plus 1. The 3 pair are: Front Left/Right, Surround Left/Right, and Rear Surround Left/Right. The Plus 1 is your center channel.

Your Multi Channel setting sends the left stereo channel to ALL your Left speakers, and the right stereo channel to ALL your Right speakers. So you can have 3 pair of Stereo outputs.

Left & Right to one room, Surround Left & Surround Right to another room, and Rear Surround Left & Rear Surround Right to the third room. Your receiver lets you set the volume of each speaker individually, so you can balance the speaker pair in each room. Once you get the individual speaker volumes set, the master volume on your receiver/remote will control each room together, just like it does now w/ your Mono Movie.

At least this way will give you stereo in each room, instead of mono.

By the way, other companies also have their Owner Manuals online instead of hardcopy in the box. It does not make them "jerks".