My appologies if this is the stupidest question anyone has ever asked (just call me Mr. Green!), but am I able to temporarliy use the 7.1 7100 as a 5.1 receiver and if so, do I just not hook up the other two surrounds? I'm sure it's something that simple, I just wanted to make sure before I got too far deep into this. I am in the process of purchasing speakers and I hope to be able to save a few hundred bucks by purchasing the two rear mid surrounds a few months down the road... if possible. Thanks in advance for your help.

Mike

Sure thing. As you say, just don't connect the other two channels. I've actually got a friend in Texas who's considering the 950/7100 and would probably only use three of the channels initially (he's got a Classe two-chanel amp driving his Martin Logan Aeons already).

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

Absolutely you can use as 5.1. That is the way mine are configured. In the speaker config menu just make sure the back surrounds are shown as "none". If you want to go to 6.1 before 7.1 you can do that also by hooking up to the left back surround and changing from "none' to BS
No question is too simple: I asked a ton when my 950 was new. Enjoy; the 950, even with its quirks, sounds great

Just 'cause I'm a bit anal sometimes, I thought I'd say ... Mike, you do mean a 950/7100 combo right, not just a 7100 by itself? I think that is what everyone is assuming here.

Yeah sorry... that's what I meant. My newness is really showing now!

Mike

Now if I decided to use the 950/7100 as a 5.1 in the mainroom for HT can I use the other 2 channels to run stereo to the rest of the house. I have 4 bedrooms that are all prewired for speakers. Do I need additional hardware to do this or will the 950/7100 combo run everything?

Mike

The 950 has a second zone (analog only) that could be paired up with the extra two channels of the 7100 to send stereo through the rest of the house. All you may need is a speaker switchbox of some sort to distribute the 7100's output between all of those speakers (I would be wary of trying to directly connect four sets of speakers to one pair of amp channels).

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

Ok, but will the amp itself be enough to power the rest of the house? Say for example, I want to watch a DVD in the main room in 5.1 and the wife insists on cleaning around me with stereo playing in the rest of the house... not that that would ever happen, but will I notice any drops or distortion with either of the signals or run into any other problems?

Mike

[This message has been edited by Arizona Mike (edited November 03, 2003).]

That would be no problem for the 7100. It's very similar to someone bi-amping their mains in a 5.1 system by using the two extra channels.

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

From the 7100's manual:



I think that means you won't have to worry about two channels sucking the juice from the other 5

Incidentally, I use my 7100 to power 5 speakers and a subwoofer, and there are never drops in sound levels or clarity. I have no center channel, and a single rear surround.

-Joe

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