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by Danny Lanka on October 17th, 2005

Danny Lanka

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I have a pre-center channel amp. How do I connect the center channel speaker without a dedicated input for a center channel speaker?

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  • by RedJohn on November 4th, 2005

    RedJohn

    The question is a little vague. It sounds like you are asking how to connect a centre-channel speaker to a multi-channel amplifier when the source only has two channels.

    Modern home theatre amplifiers decode multi-channel information sent to them by the source (e.g., optical disk player). You should connect the source component to the amplifier using an optical (Toslink) and/or a coaxial digital interconnect. The amplifier will be able to decode multi-channel data transmitted over the digital link and direct it out to the correct speakers in a multi-channel environment. Audio information is always encoded in Dolby on DVDs, a higher quality DTS audio track may also be available. If the source is a DVD player, you may have to go into its menu to enable the digital outputs. The amplifier's inputs may also have to be configured to map the Toslink or coaxial digital signal to the correct amplifier channel. You will need to read the operating manuals for these items to find out how to do this.

    If you have a two-channel, analog source (e.g., CD player, tape deck), you simply connect it to a two-channel input on the amplifier. You will only be able to listen to such sources in stereo, unless your amplifier has 'advanced' features to synthesize a multi-channel environment from the two-channel source. These modes may be labelled 'theatre', 'club', or 'enhanced', for example, but they all sound like 'padded cell with echo' to my ears. With a two-channel source, it is best to listen in two-channel (stereo) mode.

    If your amplifier has no decoding capabilities, the source component would need to perform this function. Two-channel sources will be rendered in stereo. Most inexpensive DVD players do not include any decoding, so you would have to make do with two-channel playback. Some players can output a Dobly-encoded signal on the two-channel analog, but this is useless if your amplifier cannot decode it.

    Some players support the SACD and/or DVD-A multi-channel audio formats. These players output up to six channels of analog audio, normally configured for left, right, centre, left surround, right surround, and subwoofer. If your amplifier has an input intended for six analog inputs, you can play one of these sources. SACD and DVD-A players can also downmix multi-channel data to two channels for stereo playback.

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