Hi. I have started connecting my 990. So far so good except that I am unsure which Rear Surround Pre-Amp out - left or right, do I use to feed a 6.1 system. I have seen it mentioned in the forums that I can set this to a single center during setup, but there is nothing that says which output to use.

I believe that you want to use the left back surround, but I haven't tried it.

I think the 990 will sense any speaker connected to it and output to that speaker as directed by the surround processing you select. You may have to go into auto setup to tell it the speaker is connected. Gonk is the expert, so try the left channel and see if it works. Make sure you select a processing mode which outputs 6.1 when you do your testing and let us know for sure how it works.

When I had the 990, I pretty much left it in Dolby Digital II mode with the 6.1 speaker mode turned on (occasionally for DVD's, I would manually switch to DTS). The 1050 would automatically adapt when a 6.1 signal was present and send power to the speaker if it was, otherwise the speaker was dead quiet.

For cable TV input (from the SA-8300HD) over digital-coax, it seems, I would simply configure the input to Dolby Digital Ex. This should result in the same signal going to both rear surrounds so wiring just the left output, would provide the output if preset. This assumes of course that that mode handles a regular 5.1 signal. Any ideas if this is correct? Is there any reason to consider using PL-IIx movie?

I am much more confused about how to perform the configuration for DVD's. I am sending the signal via optical to the 990 via optical and letting the 990 decode. I have not had a chance to experiment yet.

I would use PLIIx rather than Dolby Digital EX. It is a more sophisticated algorithm than EX. Also, it can be used with PCM stereo and Dolby 2.0 sources. The Model 990 has surround mode memory that allows it to recall what mode you want to use for each input format type on each separate input. So the first time you play a Dolby 5.1 source with your cable box, manually select DD+PLIIx-Movie and it will remember that. When you first play a Dolby 2.0 source, select PLIIx-Movie. When you first play a PCM stereo source (which you may also encounter with the cable box), select PLIIx-Movie. The same holds true for DVD's, although if you also play CD's you may want to use something else for PCM stereo (either stereo or upsample if you want to stay in stereo mode, or any one of several multichannel modes like PLIIx-Music or 7 Stereo).

Gonk and Xenonman:

Thanks for the help, I used the left speaker and it seems to be working albeit I have no idea whether it is receiving a blend of the rear feeds or just the left rear. I should probably call Outlaw in the morning to confirm. I don't think a 7th speaker will ever pass the WAF test.

The following represents my understanding of how the Outlaw 990 supports a 6.1 speaker configuration after talking with Scott last week. If I am incorrect in any way please let me know.

The most important fact was that the 990 cannot be configured to recognize 6.1. While the auto set-up can detect a single speaker, it does nothing with the data. This has several ramifications.

1) The 990 only supports 6.1 to the extent that a processing mode is itself 6.1. These include DD Surround EX or one of the DTS flavors ES-Matrix, ES-Discrete or DTS:Neo-6.

2) The DD IIx modes as implemented on the 990 do not support upconversion of a 5.1 signal to 6.1 (despite this being part of the DD IIx specifications on the Dolby site). My understanding per Scott this was that this was a limitation they ran into when developing the software for the 990. However, Scott then indicated that he thought that there typically was not a lot of difference in the content between the two rear channel bands, so using one of these two channels feed a single rear center might well prove acceptable.

3) If the 990 is fed a 7.1 analog signal, it cannot combine the two into a 6.1 output. Consequently, to support 6.1, you need to be able to configure the input device to output 6.1. If your analog source device cannot be configured to output 6.1, you may be able to use other workaround if that vendor supports them.

In terms of a work-around, I asked if I could use a Y connector to join the output signals of the 990 into a single output. He said no that this could harm the 990. I am not sure I understand why fully (so I invite Scott or others to post a more detailed explanation).

In general Scott seemed like Gonk seemed to favor DD IIx Movie over DD Surround EX for use when watching 5.1 content

Additional Notes:

Scott confirmed that the second entry on the surround format page (page 13) PL IIx MOVIE + DOLBY VS 5-SP WIDE is a not available. He said that on the 990 two types of post processing cannot be combined and that IIx is a post processing of DD-II.

It's generally a bad idea to direct connect two outputs in parallel. The reason is that the outputs tend to be low impedance and connecting them together can give one output a low impedance path to ground through the other output.

The proper way to combine the two signals is to run them through a mixer or combiner that electronically buffers the signal so that one output won't get fed into the other output.

EEman:

Thanks for the feedback. I have seen a number of converters that are semi-reasonably priced that possibly could do the job but they end up creating a 1/4" or xlr output that would then seem to require a second adaptor to return the mono signal to RCA.

The OWI S2Mono device would seem to do this correctly in a single unit, but it looks to be pricy almost to the point where acquiring a second rear speaker would be easier.

Is there no way to connect a 7th speaker?

Xenon:

To your question, I could connect a 7th speaker and have an open power-amp channel for the input. I was trying to avoid this approach due to the way, the room is configured and the difficulty I will have in installing the extra speaker in an ascetically pleasing manner. Currently, my wife accepts the 6th speaker because of the 1050's limitation. Its the only speaker that really has some visible wiring and adding a 7th will only make this worse.

This may be a case, where I should analyze whether I would be better off at 5.1. I originally had a 5.1 system but with certain DVD's, the 1050 could not decode the rear signals properly and was dropping most of the rear signal. The work around from Outlaw was to add a 6th speaker (this is all posted in the 1050 archive somewhere back in 2003) and it made a significant difference. I am now in essence trying to fix that fix. I know that if I remove the 6th speaker, I will pick up bonus points from my wife's point of view. Any suggestions on how to conduct this type of evaluation?

I've seen XLR to RCA adapters that were just a couple of dollars. 1/4" to RCA adapters are probably equally economical. Look at places like Musician's Friend.

"In terms of a work-around, I asked if I could use a Y connector to join the output signals of the 990 into a single output. He said no that this could harm the 990."

Hmmm, why isn't this in the manual?

FWIW-I have run a y-connector to create 6.1 in my setup for 4 years now with no ill effect.YMMV.

I understand that Outlaw might want to have someone produce a printing ready version of the manual (e.g. to get the graphics really nice). However, I can't answer why Outlaw doesn't have a copy of the manual that could be updated over time and at least posted to the website. To me this would be something, that an on-line company should do. That way as things change or errors are found they can be corrected and made available to everyone.

A couple of follow-up questions.

1) Do you use the Y connector before the 7.1 input or on the 990's left and right rear surround output?

2) Do you use a Y connector that is designed to do a mono summing (I have seen some Y connectors that are designed for the old stereo vcr to mono tv type connections)? By contrast most of the Y connectors that I have seen are, if they have any explanation at all, say they are designed to split a signal.

3) Did you do anything special in the setup? For example, reducing the relative output from each source?

73bruin - The manual is available online as a .pdf in the 990 product page. I find it very useful when I need to use it. I keep it on my desktop so it is easy to access when needed.

With regards to the wiring for a 7th speaker, I bought some 4 strand phone cable which I used to power my rear surrounds awhile back before I buried the wire under some new carpet. If you can only run one wire to your rears it would serve to power both speakers and is pretty cheap. I think it is 24 gauge but it is solid copper. It powers the rears pretty well.

A couple of follow-up questions.

1) Do you use the Y connector before the 7.1 input or on the 990's left and right rear surround output?

"On the 990's L&R surround output"

2) Do you use a Y connector that is designed to do a mono summing (I have seen some Y connectors that are designed for the old stereo vcr to mono tv type connections)? By contrast most of the Y connectors that I have seen are, if they have any explanation at all, say they are designed to split a signal.

" Mono summing. It has 2 male connectors y'ing down to 1 Male connector"

3) Did you do anything special in the setup? For example, reducing the relative output from each source?[/quote]

"I used a RadShack meter to check that the combined outputs were in balance with the other surrounds."

Xenon - Thank you for the response. However, I was aware of that and I have downloaded the .pdf and printed it out as the version that I received with my 990 was the 0.9 release. My point was more about Outlaw keeping the manual updated as things change or errors are noted. For example, one of the surround modes "PL IIx MOVIE + DOLBY VS 5-SP WIDE" doesn't work per Scott. Even if there was only an online addendum that would be an improvement.



In my case the issue is about running the cables up a wall (which I could hide), but then getting it over an exposed wood bullnose to a speaker that is literally mounted in an open railing. My attempt to get flat 12g speaker wire mounted to the the bottom of the rail, by double sided permanent tape for the 6th speaker was pretty much a failure as the wire pulled loose. A lighter but higher gauge wire as you suggested might have worked better, but I was trying for flatness as well.

Thank you for the feedback. I will have to look through my junk box of old interconnects and cables. I may have one of the old tv cables in a drawer some place.