[Tfug] OT: 5.5 surround sound!? a musing...

[Sean Warburton]

I have a new take on the tired old 5.1 surround sound setup. I happen
to live in a dorm at the U of A, so we can procure speakers right and
left (dont ask how; I don't even know), but it got to the point where
our recievers weren't cutting it, just not enough hookups. So these 5
floorstanding 300-watt speakers with the 12" woofers in them were only
really using the midrange speaker, because the power output per
channel was about a third of what the speaker could put out (the
woofer was vibrating, but just barely). So I thought to make the
subwoofer out go to a line in on the other receiver and see what
happens when i hooked up the floorstandings to them. Well, the
speakers automatically disabled the midrange and tweeter (probably
didnt really disable, simply the signal they were getting was way
below their range, so they didn't do anything), and the woofer
actually moved! It did what it was supposed to. So I then made some
"smaller" 100 watt bookshelf speakers the surround sound midrange
speakers hooked up to the first receiver (the one that had the
subwoofer out the went to the second)- it looks like this:

receiver 1: smaller speakers in surround sound configuration WITHOUT woofer.
                woofer out goes to line in on receiver 2
                be sure all settings on this receiver associated with
the woofer are on maximum volume because this is the signal your other
receiver will reproduce and amplify
receiver 2: larger speakers arranged in surround sound configuration
(for best results, put bass setting to +12 dB)
                put smaller ones near larger ones, because it sounds
like the smaller ones have a HUGE kick to them, especially during
movies
                if you can, put small on top of larger (I can't
because they rattle around and eventually fall off, due to vibrations)

and now we have a real sound system. In fact, my chair is vibrating to
the beat of some techno as I type this:) There is actually no
distortion whatsoever. I was expecting at least a little bit, but
there was nothing. It was just disappointing because we must have had
at least 1500 watts between both our receivers, but they couldn't even
drive even two 300 watt speakers. I guess it has to do with the
receiver having only 110 watts per channel, whereas the speaker was
rated for 3 times that. Even still, though, 110 watts of power going
directly to the woofer might make it thump a little more than if
spread over the woofer, midrange, and tweeter. If anyone else can do
this, I would HIGHLY recommend it; just ask my neighbors. They also
have a sale on a pretty powerful 770- watt Pioneer receiver at
BestBuy.com for about 130 shipped, should anyone else on this list be
an audiophile like me. now for that rotary woofer... :)
Hope this helps!
     Sean

-- 
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four 17" CRTs (uber widescreen)
5.5 surround sound (1520 watts)
one happy gamer