Tech help. 5.1 receiver.

[*Ant*]

I'm a bit of an audiophile and love my music which I play through a fabulous Denon system paired with a couple of KEF Coda 7 speakers (if you can find a pair for a reasonable price grab them, amazing sound!). 

But i've always been left cold by the sound quality of my TV when playing music videos on it via youtube, which is an inherent failing of modern flat panel TV's with no room for decent speakers. I didn't really want to go down the route of a full surround sound 5.1/7.1 system with front and rear speakers, centre speaker and subwoofer due to space, cost and wires everywhere. 

I have bought a 2nd hand Onkyo 5.1 receiver which is able to play 2.1 stereo sound via it's settings through a pair of old Eltax Hi-Fi speakers that I had which i've placed either side of my TV.  It has improved the sound greatly, although i'm wanting more. 

My question is - can I connect a 2nd pair of speakers and have 4.1 stereo, if you get what I mean?

From my understanding, which may be incorrect, I don't need a centre speaker because the two Eltax either side of my TV are coping perfectly fine with dialogue. And I don't need a powered subwoofer as i'm using Hi-Fi speakers that can handle the need for Bass. So would another pair of front facing Hi-Fi speakers in the corners of my room compliment the two I have either side of my TV, and would it even work as i'd have the settings on my receiver set on 5.1? 

I know that's a bit of a ramble and may not make any sense, but i'm reading conflicting opinions when I google about it. 

[Ken L]

It seems to depend on the make and model.

Some will have a phantom mode that splits the dialogue between the two front speakers, either automatically or via a selector.

Others will just sound muddy, and really need a centre speaker.

[*Ant*]

5 hours ago, Ken L said:

It seems to depend on the make and model.

Some will have a phantom mode that splits the dialogue between the two front speakers, either automatically or via a selector.

Others will just sound muddy, and really need a centre speaker.

Yes I've read the exact same thing Ken. Infact I've read many many different views and opinions, but still non the wiser. The manual for my Onkyo receiver doesn't help either. I may have to keep my eye out for a good 2nd hand deal for a speaker package on ebay. 

But thanks anyway, I know you must have looked in to it. 

[Ken L]

3 minutes ago, *Ant* said:

Yes I've read the exact same thing Ken. Infact I've read many many different views and opinions, but still non the wiser. The manual for my Onkyo receiver doesn't help either. I may have to keep my eye out for a good 2nd hand deal for a speaker package on ebay. 

But thanks anyway, I know you must have looked in to it. 

No. Didn't need to look it up. I have acquired a Dennon amp (that I've yet to set up), that specifically accommodates a phantom mode and switches to two channel stereo for audio.

Personally, I'd happily go back to my Pioneer A400 with a piggyback surround decoder/amplifier.

[chesters1]

I use a creative labs setup and you need a center speaker for  decent speech ,the outer two front speakers will give you the depth if someone is standing (as in the film) to one side making noises you also need them as far apart as possible so it grabs your attention 

The biggest thing is you need the output to the amp from the source to be in the right format (you lose quality using say a toslink to bnc or rca connector) most amps will have a test tone going to all speakers so you can twiddle the seperation .

My advise is spend as much as possible it really makes a difference ,living in a tiny house even 5.1 is wasted so it rarely gets used i wish i still lived in our old place the living room was bigger than the whole of this house and i used two 15" woofers for the base you really noticed it lol .Couldnt use the amp here (a fab kenwood one) it didnt have digital imputs so i bought an old creative labs second hand as the speakers are small enough not to notice but give a pretty good output .I would like to get a 7.1 system but as i said its pointless unless your room is big enough to make it worth while but so long as what you are watching is sending surround sound out you should get better sound than the telly itself as even the biggest tv isnt wide enough to hear surround properly .If your telly just sends out stereo no amount of money spent will give surround and if the signal going into the tv has to be in surround aswell so check your sat or streaming box is set to surround so its passed on ,we circumvent the tv itself and plug directly into the output on the sat box as we dont get a decent signal on the aerial modern tv's dont seems to have audio as a thing anymore but you may have a soundbar out to grab a feed from if your lucky

Mostly we use headphones on our bedroom tv so no point upgrading the sound in there the walls are so thin you can hear next door arguing  and we dont want a feud at our time of life !the old house was 100 yards from next door so you could turn the amp up to 11 and enjoy films

Edited April 19, 2022 by chesters1