ECydeDave

My friend recently asked me if he could split the positive signal from his left surround and the negative from his right surround and add a rear center like this to have "6.1" (sort of). I told him that this probably wouldn't be good for both his receiver and speakers. Was I wrong in telling him this? Should I tell him to try it? Any info would be appreciated. Thanks!

Dead

I would not advise trying what he is suggesting.

Ask your friend if he has an old Dolby Pro Logic receiver sitting around. If he does, also ask if he has preamp outputs for his rear channels on his DD system. If he can answer yes to both of these, then he's good to go. Just run the rear outputs into the inputs on the DPL unit and use it to produce the rear center channel.

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Mexico here I come :-)

D.

ECydeDave

I had already told him about how to do it with the Pro-Logic receiver, but #1 he doesnt have one and won't buy one, and #2 he doesn't have the rear outputs for it. He says he still might try it the way I described though...oh well, better his HT than mine!!!

daledude

If only used for pro-logic, it would be o.k. but pointless. Because it's just a mono signal, all the rear speakers are getting the same signal. (Many early pro-logic receivers only used one amp for both rear channels.)

If used for Discrete surround info. (DD/DTS) then it will only be a matter of time before the receiver and or speaker dies. What will happen is when one only side plays, it will pretty much destroy the amp and possibly the speakers. You MUST use a decoder for it to work.

DigIt

It might work, but make sure the amp can handle the new load of the additional speaker--he'll be stressing the amp, and runs the risk of it burning out. He'll also need to put a potentiometer on that speaker so he can adjust the volume.