Surround Sound Advice

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reckedracing

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I recently acquired a surround sound system, pretty old technology at this point.
I have a onkyo receiver, with cambridge soundworks ensemble speakers, and a sony sub.
The original sub blew up so my dad replaced it.

I'm not exactly sure what's going on with it but it appears the center and rear channels are cooked. The 2 front channels work, and the multi source channels work, but they operate on 2 different volume controls.

My question, i have 2 front channels that are 6 ohm, and i have 2 speakers that are 6 ohm, and i also have what i believe to be a mid level bass box that is also 6 ohm. The kind of box with the tube coming out the front. Should I be running a set of speaker wires from each channel to both a single speaker and a single "channel" in the box? Or run them in series or parallel or neither?

I believe I should ultimately just get a new receiver but this isn't a priority at this point so i'm shooting for a basic setup of 2 fronts, the 2 channels in the mid bass box and the sub.

edit: the sub has its own amp attached to the back and is only wired via one rca cable from the subwoofer out on the receiver. The amp on the back of the sub has spots for 4 more speakers to come out of the amp, not really sure what those are for.

here is an example of the back of the receiver
its a TX-SV535
i cant get the center and rear to work, just the front (the 2 round ones, and the remotes to the left of those)
09205444_dsc07509.jpg


better pic
762_4.jpg
 
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Sub impedance doesn't matter if it's got its own internal amp.

s2znzl.jpg



Post up more information and/or photos of the 'mid bass box'. I'm not really sure what you're referring to with this, does it have its own crossover?
 
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I agree. Most subs (almost every one) have built in power and you just run a single RCA to it.

I would make sure the speakers or the channel is bad (center channel es muy impotante). I have a old school square battery with leads that I hook up to speakers. The speaker will "pop" when momentarily hooked up to the leads.

Or.....just switch the center channel to a left or right (that you've verified works still) and go from there.

I have a slightly newer Onkyo and I say it's worth every penny. ($225)
 
Center channel isn't THAT important; if it's like the Onkyo receiver that I've got (no clue what the model is, I've had it for years) you can select different 'speaker modes' or whatever, and run stereo w/ sub, which will only send power to the two fronts and the subwoofer.
 
nothing has its own crossover, the sub isn't what i have questions on, that part i know from cars

here's an example of the front speakers, without the little switches shown in this pic
Cambridge_Ensemble_and_Rotel_RX_402_002.JPG


and here is an example of the thing i refer to as mid bass, which is probably a very wrong reference, i'm assuming this would actually just be considered a normal bass, but it doesn't have its own amp so i don't know where i would hook this up to on the receiver
its like this, except it only has 2 hookups, a left and a right
5Ga5K75Me3I93F53Jbc7geee7affeac2a134b.jpg
 
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Looks like your 'mid bass' is supposed to be a sub of a smaller satelite system. The sub basically powers all the sateliets from it acting as the brain, much like one of those all in one dvd/recevier 'home theature' units.

I'd just not use that if you have a sub and decent speakers already. no point.
 
this is what i have pretty much, but a mix between ensemble and ensembleII
i'll have to take pics of everything. I think i just need to cough up and get a new receiver with digital input so i can have decent sound for movies.
6900157-2-200-0.gif


so according to this .pdf i found the 6 ohm front speaker should be wired to both the speaker(satellite) and sub, either 2 wires or run in parallel from sub to sat or sat to sub
http://download.cambridgesoundworks.com/manuals/new_ens2.pdf

i think i will include this smaller sub in my wiring for watching anything i don't want to shake my neighbors house
next step will be to see if the rear and center is really burnt out or if i'm just that retarded.
when i switch to dolby i have no sound unless i go to bypass, whatever the fuck that does
maybe my rca out on my shitbox insignia tv doesn't support anything more than rudimentary shit.
 
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bypass usually turns off everything BUT the DSP processor to allow it to have the most memory/resources available to generate the best sound. i tshouldn't change outputs.
 
Looks like your 'mid bass' is supposed to be a sub of a smaller satelite system. The sub basically powers all the sateliets from it acting as the brain, much like one of those all in one dvd/recevier 'home theature' units.

I'd just not use that if you have a sub and decent speakers already. no point.


That's what I was thinking.

Just don't use that piece.
 
From my experience and research (when using a theater system in 5.1, 7.1, etc.) around 70-75% of the sound comes through the center channel. My next home theater upgrade will be a tube amp that gives more power to the center channel then I currently have.
 
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