If you only have one set of extra speakers, which would you setup...the SB or Presence and why?
The second part is: do any/all DVD's have the extra SB and/or Presence channels and is there a place to look up which titles?
Any help would be appreciated as I do have one set of speakers and only require wire...(how long will be answered by you
The only true, discrete, surround back information on a DVD is the 6.1 soundtrack available on Dolby EX or DTS Neo6 on a few movies. In a theater this single channel is usually reproduced by several monopole speakers at the rear of the theater. This is because the human ear is pretty good at detecting placement directly behind. But the intent of the film’s director is to simply add a greater sense of immersion . The intent is NOT to be able to pinpoint the sound source which would happen if a single speaker was mounted directly behind.
This several-rear-spread-speakers-producing-one-channel is helpful for us in home theater because we can then always recommend 2 rear surround speakers separated at least 1 meter (but preferably more). Now we’ll have a speaker system which will work with either a 6-channel receiver or 7-channel receiver and provide the intended immersion or “spread-surround-sound” effect which is the intention in the movies recorded with a separate rear channel.
But what is 7.1 then? 7.1 is taking the standard, discrete, surround left and surround right 5.1 signal and matrixing these channels through a proprietary algorithm such as Dolby Pro Logic IIx or Harman’s Logic 7. Remember these last two channels are Not recorded on any DVD-Video, DVD-Audio or SACD. They are derived From the discrete left and right surround channels.
So what are the two front Presence channels on Yamaha receivers? Simply put, Yamaha’s Presence channels feature is their attempt at DSPing-to-a-particular-hall-effect the information available on the discrete, front left and front right channels. And depending on the algorithm, some ambience or hall effect may be sampled from the discrete center channel also.
What to choose? Well, your ears are definitely more sensitive to an effect in front of you than from behind. AND the rest of the receiver world has more readily adopted the 7.1 concept for, I believe, the increased sense of immersion it can provide on most sources. Personally, I’ve found listening to Yamaha’s Presence speakers to be variable depending on the source material. And I always prize vocal intelligibility and articulation over an effect which can sometimes hurt the articulation. Your choice.
Finally got a chance to read the supplement review, great information, it leaves me with one question. I plan on driving seven 8 ohm speakers with a sensitivity of 86db in very small room probably under 1200 cubic foot. Will I be ok?
Absolutely no problem. You’ll have power to spare.
Unfortunately for superman180, I think this site has made it abundantley clear they do not think an all-channels driven spec is important and in keeping with that theme an all-channels driven test has not been provided in their supplemental info.
I find it somewhat perplexing that the reviewers are unwilling to provide an all-channels driven rating even if they find it a spec of questionable value. I, for one, still want to know what an amp can do driving 5 or 7 channels simultaneously. I don't care if it's un-realistic or rarely occurs. It's a spec that I believe can help determine how robust the power supply/capacitor/amp combination is and I want to know what it is. It's up to me to do my research and decide if it's important or not.
Speaking as Audioholic’s Product Evaluation Manager and a former Product Manager for Yamaha I would side with Gene and NOT publish a spec of such dubious merit. As an analogy, if you loaded up a half-ton pickup with three and a half tons and then tested its performance, what would be proven? Probably only that you need a pick-up that can handle a bigger load. And that bigger truck would probably cost twice as much and be very inefficient for hauling only ½ ton loads 364 ½ days of the year.
When going from a two-channel system to a five or seven channel system (that costs the same) you do not need to reproduce 2 ½ or 3 ½ times the sound just because you’ve got the speakers. You strive to produce (relatively) the same maximum SPLs from the front 3 channels (as with the old two) with some reserve left over for the rears. The simple fact is the general public gets confused (as they did in the nineties) when the front three channels have different power ratings than the rears.
The real reason the rears do sometimes need the same 100 watts of power is that the sensitivities of smaller surround speakers are usually lower and thus require more power to be driven to the same SPL as (often larger) left-center-rights.
The test for “robustness of power supply” is and always has been the relative differences in power output between 8 ohm loads and 4 ohm loads, 20Hz – 20KHz, with 2 channels driven at a specified distortion level. The translation of “robustness of power supply” for 5 or 7 channels can be interpolated fairly accurately from this information given that the real life demands for 5 or 7 channels are, practically speaking, about the same as 2 channels as outlined above.
The only option would be to have your 2092 modified to have 6CH inputs added, but care must be taken that the person doing it doesn't mess things up or make your receiver noisy.
And if you do find someone nutty enough And qualified to do such a mod let us know how much it costs!
