I wanted to ask if someone tried connecting more speakers to a Denon 3805. I have a Denon 3805, Pardigm Monitor 11's in the front, Monitor CC-370 for the center, ADP 370 surrounds and ADP 170 for the rear surrounds. The Denon supports 2 speaker sets for the surrounds, an A channel and a B channel. What I want to do is to add another pair of ADP 370s on the B channel and configure the AMP to output to both the A+B channels. Has anyone tried this? Will this work? What impat will this have on the AMP?
The A & B surrounds are not available together. The two locations are there for you to be able to use different speaker sets for different media. An example would be using direct radiating on A and bi-poles or di-poles on B.
bp4361, a-vman is right about the A & B not being available together, that is if "B" speakers are set as "Zone 2 speakers". Your Denon is made to do exactly what you want to do, so no sweat. The mistake you are making is calling the surounds "A" and "B". In fact they are called "surround" and "surround back". This is what you do: -Hit "System Set-up" -go to "5. Option Set-up" -then go to "1. Power Amp Set-up" -from here switch the power amp assigment from "Zone 2" or "Zone 3" to "Surround Back" Now, back to "System Set-up" -go to "2. Speaker Set-up" -go to "1. Speaker config" -then scroll down and NOW you will see surround "a" and "b" where as "b" should be considered "surround back". -set them both to large or small, whatever you want. Just make sure you hook up those speakers to the correct posts on the back of the Denon marked "Surround Back" [bold]NOT[/bold] marked "Surround B". Your "Surround A" should already be hooked up in your original 5.1 configuration. And now you are good to go my friend!!!!!!!!!!! Enjoy the [bold]7.1[/bold] surround, sweet! oh, and it should not have too much of an impact on the Denon especially with movie watching. If playing 7-channel music and pushing it hard you can bet it will get hotter than just playing 5-channel so make sure it's well ventilated. I would probably set those to "small" if I were you. That reminds me, what sub do you have with all this?
Razz, he already has both sets of surrounds hooked up and running. He is asking about using the surround B channels along with them which you can't do. Surround B and surround back are not the same. When you select between surround A and surround B the surround amplifier simply follows the switch to allow you the option on types of "side" surrounds depending on the media you are listening to. As for the question of the impact on the amp. The 3805 has 7 equal powered amps, therefore you are only asking it to give what it was designed to do. If more speakers is really your goal start saving for the 5805 ($6000), it has 10 fully assignable amps and 2 sub outs. You can power 2 separate 5.1 systems in different rooms or configure it for up to a 10.2 system in the main room. This unit requires special training to sell. my training class is the first of next month. It's a serious Bad-boy receiver.
[bold]Holly smokes bp4361!!!!!!!!!![/bold] I miss read that, i thought you were looking to go to from 5.1 to 7.1 But you already have it and you actually want [bold]more!!![/bold] On top of that, you are using two sets of bi-polar speakers back there, thats like using 8 direct radiating speakers for your surround, and you want more????? Tell us what you think your system is lacking. You have a great set-up, asuming you [bold]do[/bold] have a decent sub in there.
Greetings All, I have ordered a Denon AVR-3805 AV Receiver, In part because I was told that I could have three zones, 5.1 for the main HT set-up, and a two-speaker zone in the dining room and a third zone (also two-speaker) outside. Since ordering, I have been able to download the manual from Denons web-site, and while I have RTFM, I am still no wiser Is it indeed possible to set up three independant zones ? From the photograph from the Denon web-site there certainly is the correct number of speaker connectors to have 5.1 and two other stereo speakers, but the manual makes no sense to me what-so-ever !!! Any help would be greatly appreciated !! Many thanks, Austen.
Yes you can use 5.1 in one room, assign the 2 spare amps to zone 2, and add an amp for zone 3 using the pre-outs.
Hi Allen, Thanks for the post. Just a couple more questions if I may ?? I understand that the 3805 has a total of seven amps available, so I'm going to use five of 'em for 5.1 in the HT, and the other two for the dining room. So why does it appear to have NINE speaker terminals on the back ? How on earth would you use the other two ?? You mention adding an amp for the third zone using the pre-outs. I have an existing (old) Akai amp that this is replacing. Would I connect the zone three pre-out to the "AUX-IN" of the old Akai amp ? Finally, I believe that the zone three pre-out (and I've got NO IDEA about zone two !! ) can not use the audio digital in. If this is correct, do I thus need to also connect an audio L/R cable from the DVD to the Denon and somehow tell the Denon to use that, instead of the DVD digital, when I wish to listen to DVD/CD's on zone three ??? Many thanks, Austen.
If your Akai is a receiver it will get a lttle tricky using it. If its just an amp then it will work fine. You can pick up 2 channel amps fairly cheap to power additional zones. You can also use 7.1 for the theater and power both zones 2 & 3 from a seperate amp. The extra surround speaker connections are for surround B. This is so you can use different types of surround speakers for different media. Foe instance, you may like Di-pole speakers for movies but direct radiating for music. In this case you will be able to dictate which speaker is used on different source settings and the surround channel amps will follow the setting. You can only use analog for zones 2 and 3, so be sure to use those cables in addition to the digital for the sources you wish to access from zones 2&3. You should be very happy with the 3805 it is a monster of a receiver.
Thanks Allen, Yes the old Akai is just an amp, I have a seperate tuner (and also a seperate cassette deck) sitting just above it. (purchased WAY before CD's were ever thought about....) However, someone else has asked, "Do I really need to ever run three different sources at the same time?" I thought I did (well, actually SHE said I did...), but since then she now thinks that this would be fine ..... Main room, Run 5.1 Use the Zone 2 feature (the other two internal amps) through a A/B speaker select switch, outputs of which each go to a volume control, and then to the dining room / outside speakers. Advantages...No need for the seperate Akai Disadvantages...No possibility of three source / three areas. If I did this, and one day she wanted to play a music DVD on the main 5.1, could she ALSO switch this to appear on the zone 2, and thus outside and in the dining room ???? I guess what I want is the ability to have a second source on the zone two, OR also force zone 2 to play the main input...... Now, If only the Denon instruction manual was written in my native language (English) I would be able to make much more sense of it !!! Thanks again for your input, Austen.
The A/B speaker switch is not neccessary as long as you use impedence matching volume controls. If you want to listen to one zone and not the other, you would simply keep the volume turned all the way down on the zone you are not using. But it as OK to use both together. You do need to set the volume levels so that you don't throw the receiver into protect mode. This is the way to set that to avoid overload problems. 1) On the remote Turn on zone 2 2) adjust the volume knobs in the zones to full open. 3) use the remote to raise the zone 2 volume until you have reached your maximum comfortable listening level at both zones. 4) at this point you should not need to ever adjust the volume for zone 2 inside the 3805, do it at the wall control in the zone only. (one common problem is people accidentay raising the volume in zone2 while trying to raise the main zone because the remote was left on the zone 2 setting, this will almost always cause the unit to shut off because you are over driving the volume controls in the secondary zones). Any source you have connected through analog cables is available through zone 2.
Hi Guys... We have decided to go with the impedence matching volume controls solution. As far as I understand then .... 1) I'll have 5.1 in the main roon 2) The "spare" two amps drive the second zone. 3) Two impedence matching volume controls are wired in parallel with each other to the Denons "Surr Back / Zone 2 / Zone 3" speaker terminals. 4) One of these impedence matching volume controls has the outside speakers connected to it, the other the dining room speakers. 5) Normally, we can (say) play a Music-Video DVD (in 5.1) in the main room. 6) If required, At the same time, She can also play an Audio CD and have the sound in the dining room / outdoor area. 7) Also available is the ability to route the Music-Video DVD to the dining room / outdoor areas. 8) BUT....In order to be able to achieve (6), I need to connect BOTH an Audio L/R cable from the CD Player to have sound in the other areas AND ALSO a digital audio cable from the CD Player to have digital sound in the main 5.1 area. 9) ALSO, To be able to hear the Music-Video DVD's in the other two areas I need to run both the digital audio cable (for the main room 5.1) AND an Audio L/R cable for sound from the second zone. If all this is correct, the only other thing I need to confirm is that the Denon 3805 will allow you to use both types of inputs from the one source, SIMULTANEOUSLY, IE Route the DVD digital audio to the 5.1 amps and then to the main room, and AT THE SAME TIME, route the DVD L/R Audio to the other two amps and then to the second zone ????? Many thanks for all your help, Austen.
Greetings All, Thanks to your help previously I am now more informed and more advanced in my planning. To recap .... I have a Denon 3805 Amp, and SHE requires multiple inputs to go to multiple outputs. With your input I had decided on using the main room as 5.1 and the other two areas (dining and patio) from the other two stages using impedance matching volume controls for the dining room and patio. Now SHE says "Can we get sound around the pool area ??". From what I now know the answer is "Yes, either use another impedance matching volume control (splitting the output 3 ways) or connect the old Akai amp I have to the Denon Zone 3 output. I can see advantages and disadvantages of both the "three-way impedance matching volume control plan" and the "add a second amp" plan ...... Is there any RIGHT way to do this, or conversly, is there any WRONG way to do this ??? Once again, thanks for all your input !! Austen.
Austen, I have powered as many 6 pair of extra speakers using the amps assigned to zone 2 and impedence matching controls. You can use either scenario you have listed. Using zone 3 would give you the option of different sources in different zones.
