Yamaha 2600 Multi Zone HELP

[pmoney]

Just purchased Yamaha 2600 and love it but confused on how to set up multi zone functions. I have 5.1 in my main room, 2 speakers in my basement and 2 speakers outside. I have 5.1 hooked up to FR,FL,C,SR,SL - works fine.
Basement speakers are hooked up to SB L/R. Outside hooked up to Presence L/R.
I can get 5.1 and Outside(Presence) to work. SB's do not work for zone 3.
I appears in the GUI I can assign int amp for zone 2 & 3. Amp can be assigned to sur/pres/both. If assigned to pres it control outside speakers. If assigned to sur it control SB of 5.1 system not sure how to assign to basement - SB speakers.
Is it possible to have 5.1 hooked and then switch to 3.1 & zone 2 & zone 3 without adding an ext. amp If so how?
Any advice would be helpful.

 

[AVRat]

At first glance it seems more versatile than it really is. The short answer is that you still need an external amp for 3, completely independent zones. If you won’t be using the HT and say the downstairs speakers simultaneously, you could use the Speaker B terminals.

I think I read Pg 96 five times to get it straight.

 

[jcPanny]

Powering 3 zones

If you use the speaker B option, make sure you do not run speaker A AND B at the same time. This can overheat your receiver and cause it to go into shutdown. Running A OR B is fine.

Your safest bet is to purchase an inexpensive audiosource amp ($50-70) to run zone 2 and/or 3. The audiosource will be stable running 2 pairs of 8 ohm speakers freeing up more receiver headroom for the HT.

If you really want 3 zones (different music in each location) then you can connect the Zone 3 RCA to the audiosource amp and let the receiver power the zone 2 speakers.