I'm thinking of moving from 5.1 to 7.1 and have a few questions:

1. Should I use my old 60w Hitachi receiver to power the rear centers with OUTLAW preamp out feeding the Hitachi AUX in? Would I then use the receiver's volume control to fine tune?

2. Is there is big difference between 6 and 7 in a room that is 20' long and 15' wide?

My main reason for 7 vs 6 is that the doorway into the room is rear center and it would be easier to place center speakers on either side plus I assume it might sound fuller.

If I used the configuration above would there be any dramatic difference between my setup and a 7.1 receiver like the Denon 3802?

How much better would the 950/770 sound? I have Klipsch Cornwall and Heresy speakers which are very effecient so I don't think I need much more power. The 950/770 is probably out my price range today.

[This message has been edited by Hoots (edited November 18, 2002).]

Hey, Hoots! No need to upgrade beyond your 1050 (unless, of course, you want to do so). You can hook both speakers up in parallel to the BC channel on the 1050 (the owner's manual even says so!) without any trouble. Unless you want some different processing options or more power, I would just do that.

The 7.1 setups are, to the best of my knowledge, not really 8 discrete channels but rather seven. I believe the the same mono signal is sent to both back channels so there would be no difference (from a signal viewpoint) to have the BC paralleled to two speakers versus a setup with two seperate outputs.

I used an old receiver (hooked to my 1050's pre-amp output) to drive my single surround back channel for a while last year, before getting a used Parasound amp. It worked just fine -- I picked a volume setting on the receiver (adjusting it and the trim on the 1050 to get the speaker balanced) and left it there. If you have space for two speakers, it would be no problem to split the 1050's pre-amp output and run the signal into the left and right AUX inputs on your Hitachi. With a 15' wide room, you may very well see benefits from having the extra speaker.

Also, Owl's_Warder brings up a good point -- most receivers and pre/pros offering 7.1 actually use the same signal for both surround back channels. The 1050's Surround 6.1 sounds very comparable to Dolby EX to my ear.

------------------
gonk -- Saloon Links | Pre/Pro Comparison Chart | 950 Review