Working around lack of multichannel IO

[Marconi]

I have a Yamaha AV receiver with a sony multi format DVD player but have to listen to my SQ collection on my Sony 3500 as it has discrete analog inputs for my SQ decoder. I know this is a recognised shortcoming of new AV equipment and it isn’t going to be fixed, but I think I have a fix and wondered if anyone had already tried this before I start building switch boxes. Connect the FL and FR outputs from decoder to a line input. Connect RR and RL to another line input. assign the RR and RL inputs to the zone 2 speaker outputs (if not already being used for Atmos). Configure amp for volume settings. Should work. Any comments? Ian

 

[ClassicalSurroundFan]

I have a Yamaha AV receiver with a sony multi format DVD player but have to listen to my SQ collection on my Sony 3500 as it has discrete analog inputs for my SQ decoder. I know this is a recognised shortcoming of new AV equipment and it isn’t going to be fixed, but I think I have a fix and wondered if anyone had already tried this before I start building switch boxes. Connect the FL and FR outputs from decoder to a line input. Connect RR and RL to another line input. assign the RR and RL inputs to the zone 2 speaker outputs (if not already being used for Atmos). Configure amp for volume settings. Should work. Any comments? Ian

Does “configure amp for volume settings” mean that they can be raised and lowered uniformly without the use of an spl meter?

 

[Marconi]

On my Yamaha the remote lets you directly switch between Zone 1 and Zone 2 so you have a full range of volume and sound settings. Based on manual, I think you can link to operate volume in tandem but until I configure it don’t know but it is a minor inconvenience. My sony has Zone 3 also but Yamaha doesn’t. If it did you can make a loop to go out to decoder on zone 3, then back to two line inputs and assign one to zone 2 speaker outputs. Its a bit of a pain to pull everything out to configure this to test so was hoping someone had already tried it. If it works I will make a speaker switch box to switch rear speakers between normal and zone 2. So long as zone 1 is in 2ch mode it should work in theory.