Onkyo HT-SP904. Can I add outdoor speakers?

[Dave M]

I am looking into purchasing this system. I would like to be able to add outdoor speakers to it. I want to be able to run the outdoor speakers and have the option of shutting the indoor speakers off. I currently have an old Onkyo receiver, that is about 22 years old, that has a speaker A/B switch built into it that I run my outdoor speakers with. Would I be able to hook up an external A/B speaker switch to this system and still get quality sound?

 

[MEC]

Outdoor speakers

I am looking into purchasing this system. I would like to be able to add outdoor speakers to it. I want to be able to run the outdoor speakers and have the option of shutting the indoor speakers off. I currently have an old Onkyo receiver, that is about 22 years old, that has a speaker A/B switch built into it that I run my outdoor speakers with. Would I be able to hook up an external A/B speaker switch to this system and still get quality sound?

Dave, just buy a speaker switch from Radio Shack or similar store. They run from $20 to $100. Once you get the switch, run only your front, stereo (just the left and right front speaker outputs) to the switch input then run your front home theater speakers to one of the outputs (say channel "A") while you run your remotes to channel "B". The only thing to be aware of is that you need to run your receiver in the 2ch stereo mode to get proper stereo on your remote set (this is true of any receiver with simple A/B options as well). The upside is that you can run more than two sets of speakers as most of the aftermarket speaker switch units have accomodations for 4 sets of speakers.

Good luck,

Mark

 

[chadnliz]

You may want to put a cheap volume control somewhere easy to reach, that way you can control its level without interupting the fun, Partsexpress has some budget models to consider. If you ever upgrade you can get many units with a Zone2 feature that will allow seperate signals and volumes in 2 rooms, some even come with the second remote and sensor to place in remote room.
Before I gave up on recievers I had a Onkyo TXNR900 unit with 7 channels so you could run 7.1 or 5.1 in living room and have stereo in seperate area of choice. You could do 7.1 plus zone 2 if you add a outboard amp, that Onkyo was $1600 in 2002 and now sells for as little as a few hundred bucks.

 

[Adam]

That was Dave's first post and he hasn't been back since about 30 minutes after posting it over a month ago. So, unfortunately, I don't think that he's going to read either of your answers. Good advice, though.

 

[chadnliz]

I hate drive by's