New Q's about 6.1 home theater!!!!

I have an Onkyo receiver and I would like to know if there is anything out there to split the back speaker's signal in two so that my 6.1 surround sounds like a 7.1.

I would like to have a SBL and a SBR without changing my receiver. I would like the two new back speakers with a stereo sound. I know that if I simply add a new speaker both back speakers will be mono.

Is this possible? Is there a chip that I can instal to do this?? :confused:

Thanks in advance to those who will reply.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by kolombiano333

I have an Onkyo receiver and I would like to know if there is anything out there to split the back speaker's signal in two so that my 6.1 surround sounds like a 7.1.

I would like to have a SBL and a SBR without changing my receiver. I would like the two new back speakers with a stereo sound. I know that if I simply add a new speaker both back speakers will be mono.

Is this possible? Is there a chip that I can instal to do this?? :confused:

Thanks in advance to those who will reply.

---

Nothing you can do. It will never be stereo. 6.1 and 7.1 are really 5.1+1. That +1 being your center rear whether you install one speaker or two, they play the same signal. Dts 6.1 discret is the only true 6.1 and even with dts discreet 6.1, that ceter rear channel plays one signal to either one or two center rear speakers.

As cam said, regardless of the designation (6.1, 7.1), the signal to the rear center speaker or speakers is mono. The idea of 7.1 is to use two speakers to reproduce the mono signal in the back which probably makes the sound less localized and I suspect benefits from a comb filtering effect. The 7.1 desgination is really a misnomer as the leading number (7) should indicate discrete channels only. A 7.1 system is really just a variation of a 6.1 system; there is no stereo signal to the rear center surrounds.

If you want to use two speakers for rear center surrounds you can wire them in parallel from the rear center speaker output on the back of your receiver, but if you have preouts for that channel you'd be better off splitting that signal from the preout into a seperate two channel amp and then powering those speakers from the amp instead. When you wire two speakers in parallel from the receiver, the receiver sees those two speakers as one speaker but at half of the impedance load of a single speaker. So for instance, if you have two 8 ohm speakers wired in parallel, the receiver will behave as if it is driving a single 4 ohm speaker instead. Whether or not it is safe or feasible to do this is dependant on the impedance of your speakers and the capabilities of you receiver.

Q