Complete Newbie Setup Question (4 speakers)..

[MeanWeen]

(~long,..please help!)
I have a pretty new/nice Yamaha receiver (RX-V2090) and just got two new exterior speakers for christmas. Have only been using two inside speakers up to now and I'm having no luck trying to hook up these exterior speakers. My goal is to set up all four but also be able to play just the inside 2, or just outside 2, or all 4 at once. I know they work too.

The back has 10 speaker hook-ups, and they're sectioned off in 3(or 4) boxes:

MAIN: 2 "A" speaker connections and 2 "B" speaker connections (meaning 2 full red/black combo's each)
CENTER: 1 "C" speaker connection and 1 "D" connection

...above these two boxes is...

FRONT: 2 connections (1 "R", 1 "L")
and
REAR: 2 connetions (1 "R", 1 "L")

I've always run the inside speakers through the CENTER connections bc I was able to make that work.

Can anyone recommend how I might be able to achieve this seemingly simple task? Thanks so much for anyone who even read this!

 

[deedubb]

wire one set to A and the other to B. You should be able to turn on A or B separately, or A & B.

 

[MeanWeen]

Sadly, still no sound.

Thanks for your help deedubb, but I'm still not getting any sound. I'd tried this originally but gave it another shot. After failing to be able to reason this one out, I have resulted to "button pushing", and after trying every different setting combos on the remote and receiver I still can't figure it out.

Individually, both pairs play fine....but only when plugged in as pairs through the CENTER "C" and "D" connections.

Could it be incompatible speaker wires? Just throwing out thoughts right now.
Maybe it's in some funky mode or something(?).

Thanks again....any other suggestions appreciated.

 

[Adam]

I'm surprised that you didn't hear anything when you connected to the A and B terminals and then pushed the buttons for both sets of speakers, at least briefly. However, I have an idea of why it isn't working for you.

The diagram of the back panel shown in the owner's manual indicates the recommended (perhaps allowable) speaker impedance for running A or B separately is a minimum of 5 Ohms/speaker, whereas the minimum is 12 Ohms/speaker if you run both A and B speaker pairs. A lot of speakers are 8 Ohms (or less), so it could be that your receiver is just shutting off the amplifiers because the current draw rises too high when you turn both pairs of speakers on.

According to the manual, there isn't any setting in the menu to get both pairs to work, so I don't think that's it. From what I saw, it just says to turn on both A and B to run both pairs. So, that's why I think the impedance listing is playing a role in this.

I look forward to other people's thoughts on this.

 

[Adam]

BTW, you can download the owner's manual from Yamaha at the link here if you don't have a copy already.

 

[MeanWeen]

Optimistically raising eyebrows (more info)

Thank you so much Adam.

While I must admit that most of the technical aspects of this are over my head at this point, I feel I can help this discussion more based off your advice.

First.........on the back of the receiver, mine actually states: "A" or "B": 6 Ohms Min/Speaker Below that it says: A+B: 12 Ohms Min/Speaker

I checked out the speakers and here are the specs:

>>The 2 interior ones that I've been successfully using as speakers "C" and "D" are AEGIS COMPACT's, and they say 6 Ohms on them.

>>The exterior ones I'm trying to incorporate are INSIGNIA (~$100, NS-E2111 if interested) and they say 8 Ohms, use w 5-130W Equip.

I hope this additional information sheds some light on what I'm doing wrong, and again, pardon my ignorance.

 

[murl]

Thank you so much Adam.

While I must admit that most of the technical aspects of this are over my head at this point, I feel I can help this discussion more based off your advice.

First.........on the back of the receiver, mine actually states: "A" or "B": 6 Ohms Min/Speaker Below that it says: A+B: 12 Ohms Min/Speaker

I checked out the speakers and here are the specs:

>>The 2 interior ones that I've been successfully using as speakers "C" and "D" are AEGIS COMPACT's, and they say 6 Ohms on them.

>>The exterior ones I'm trying to incorporate are INSIGNIA (~$100, NS-E2111 if interested) and they say 8 Ohms, use w 5-130W Equip.

I hope this additional information sheds some light on what I'm doing wrong, and again, pardon my ignorance.

Based on what you have said here you are not doing anything wrong. The amp simply can't handle running A+B at the same time, you should be able to run A or B with those speakers but not both at the same time in those modes. Now someone correct me if I'm wrong but there is a "redneck" way to do it since it is a 5.1 receiver. You could simply hook the two inside to front, and the two outside to rear. Here is where it may get confusing. If you want to play the two inside turn it to stereo mode. If you want to play the inside and outside turn it to 5ch stereo, or in your case it would be 4, but that should do it. If you only wanted to play the speakers outside you could turn it on 5ch stereo and toggle the front speakers off in a menu somewhere. This should be running all of the speakers on side A like you were setting up a regular surround sound. It may be worth a shot! Maybe others much more knowledgeable may have a better idea or know more about your receiver and confirm if it will work or not. Either way I would say it's worth a shot because you only have to switch a few wires around.

 

[deedubb]

Well, it does sound like an impedance problem, but when plugged in A and B, you should be able to play one set or the other without any problems. You won't be able to play both sets together though.

I can't download the manual because you need an account, but that receiver has multiroom capability. Did you try following the instructions for that method to see if it will work?

The only other thought I had would be to wire both sets in series off speaker A outputs. I've never done this but theoretically it should work. The only problem is that all 4 speakers would be playing all the time.

 

[Adam]

Sorry to everyone about that link going to a sign-on. Yamaha appears to have changed how they link to manuals. I modified the link to go straight to the PDF, but I didn't check it after signing out. FYI, the Yamaha account is free...and you don't need to use a real e-mail account.

The consensus is that the amp can't handle the load with both A and B turned on. If anyone disagrees, please chime in.

As for the multi-room capability, this unit does have it - but it isn't amplified. It just sends out a pre-amp signal. So, another amplifier would be required to use that function.

 

[Highbar]

I'm just going to ask how you have the speakers connected to the A and B terminals? Any way you can take a picture and post it up? It doesn't make any sense that you can't at least listen to one set at a time.

I didn't read the manual but I'm guessing that if you were to hook one set of speakers up to the rear channels than you could use a 5.1 stereo setting to get the speakers to play at the same time. I know just about every receiver I've seen has one.

 

[MeanWeen]

Pictures (hopefully)

Here is a photo of the front and back of my receiver.
I connected the speaker wires by stripping the ends and inserting the appropriate ones in the holes in the back. Then I screwed down the red/black plastic connectors.

Actually, I just found out I have to have 5 posts or more to post a picture.
This is #3.

 

[MeanWeen]

#4

Also each post must be at least 10 characters.

 

[MeanWeen]

This is silly

Hopefully I can post a picture after this 5th post.

 

[MeanWeen]

Pictures (hopefully)

One thing I don't understand and I'd like to know is...should all the connections be available or active all the time, or do certain speakers only work when other speakers are plugged in (Like D won't work without C)?

I'm trying to get the basics down.
Thanks!!

 

[Adam]

One thing I don't understand and I'd like to know is...should all the connections be available or active all the time, or do certain speakers only work when other speakers are plugged in (Like D won't work without C)?

With that receiver, my guess is that the "D" center speaker won't work without "C" because of the way that the back panel is labeled. It has one button position for "C" and one for "C+D". There is no selection for just "D".

Regarding the center and surround speakers, those are active when you select a surround sound mode that uses them.

 

[MeanWeen]

Yep..

..that makes sense.

 

[Adam]

The connections look good, at least from what I can tell from the photo.

I want to ask for clarification on something. With the speakers connected to the "A" and "B" main terminals, can you get sound out of both pairs individually? In other words, can you listen to the "A" speakers by themselves, then listen to the "B" speakers by themselves? It's only when you try to listen to both that you have a problem, right?

 

[MeanWeen]

I'm glad you asked that...

...actually, at this point I'd be very happy if that was that case, but I can't seem to get any sound out at all. Not just A, or Just B, or A + B.

I know both sets of speakers and the wires I'm using do work though,.....because when I hook up the AE's or the Insigna's to the center speakers (in which case one speaker becomes C the other D) I get sound.

The trouble started when I tried to figure out a way to have them both plugged in together....and, of course, switch which ones are playing by hitting a button (my ultimate goal).

I can always just reconnect the outside speakers anytime I'm going out to do yard work, but I hate letting the machine beat me.

 

[Adam]

Hey, sorry for the delay...I was out walking the pooch for the past two hours.

What I can't see in your picture of the rear panel is whether or not the main channel ("MAIN CH") inputs ("MAIN IN") are jumpered to the pre-amp outputs ("PRE OUT"). I'll post an image of that in a couple of minutes after I create one from the owner's manual.

If they aren't jumpered, then you won't get any sound from the main speakers. You can jumper them easily using interconnect cables if you don't have the original jumper wires.

EDIT: Here's the image.

 

[MeanWeen]

Alright!!

I'm pretty sure you might have figured it out Adam. Here is a picture of what you described.

As you can see, the interconnect cables (those horse-shoe shaped connecters) are jumpering the MAIN IN together and the PRE-OUT together.

I haven't yet switched it because I want to make sure I have this right before hand (as I'd hate to blow my amp or something so close to the solution)....but, if I'm understanding correctly all I have to do is switch the interconnect cables to tie in the MAIN IN and PRE-OUT as shown in your picture.

When I fiddled with the MAIN IN "I-C" cable my speakers made some noise,...so I think we're close!