Client has a 5.1 system in the family room and remodeling the kitchen now. Would like TV sound to reach into the kitchen from time to time but not all the time. The receiver is 7.1 so I could run two more speakers and use the all channel stereo mode, but not sure if it would provide enough intelligibility on dialogue. What do you think?

Other options include left and right preamp out to outboard amp, but I know there would be times that Dolby Digital would give me no dialogue in the kitchen.

Could use a second zone, but then we have time delay issues.

Consider summing L+C to one channel of a kitchen amplifier and R+C to the other channel.

This brings up a question that's worth looking into: if you raise the center volume in 5.1, does that center info stay raised up when you switch to stereo? It could go either way. If it does, then switching to stereo when playing sound in the kitchen would give you enough center channel info for voice intelligibility.

If you're going to use preamp outputs to an outboard amp, it would not be a difficult thing, aside from the fact that you'd have to do some experimentation, to use a few resistors to mix the center preamp output into the left and right channels. Let's say you put a 10K resistor in series with the left, and another in series with the right, from the preamp output to the amp's inputs. Then run the center preamp output through a 5K volume control (pot). The output of the pot goes two ways: through a 2K resistor to the amp's left input and through another 2K resistor to the amp's right input.

I'm guessing at the values, but the point is that the pot, when fully up, would deliver more audio from the center than you get from either left or right, allowing you to raise the center info above the left and right info. (I can't guarantee that adjusting the pot won't change the levels of the left and right, but you'd be able to come to a balance.)

Yamaha trainer said there's no delay in Zone 2 or 3 with the new AVRs for 2018. He didn't demo that, but he said it.

Does the AVR have speakers A and B selection? If so, plug the kitchen into B. And the client will have to make the changes on the remote.

And just a side note. If you use the all stereo audio on the 7.1. You may still get a delay from the other speakers in the tv room.

KOT

I would just run a single speaker, Y out of the center preamp out and put a small digital amp on it, local volume control.

Denon and Marantz have an All Zone Stereo sound mode. No delay.

Craig

I've done this a few times. There is no delay on zone 1 and 2 on integra IF zone 1 is in direct or stereo. It works great! In my macros on control system, anytime the zone 2 is turned on it auto selects the correct audio for zone one. Then turns it back to dolby or whatever when zone two is turned off. Works like a champ! Downside, you lose surround sound in zone one and only get left and right speakers in zone one. Not a big deal as typically if they want sound in zone 2, its just music anyway.

If zone one is on direct or stereo, there should be NO sound in center speaker, right? Isnt that what direct and stereo is, no center channel! only left and right.

I used the wrong word... I mean their maybe an echo, so to speak, from the tv room.

KOT

Sound travels about one foot per millisecond. Even if output from the speakers is perfectly time aligned, when the listener is standing near the speakers in one room, the other room is "late".

This is not always a problem. In an outdoor restaurant setting we used a Sonos CONNECT to add sound from a sound stage to the house system. Since there is about a 70ms latency between a CONNECT Line-In and output from another Sonos Player, this latency is normally a disaster in a live music system. However, in this case the stage was 70 feet from the house speakers and the listeners. The alignment was perfect.

With a Yamaha receiver simply set the audio option to 'audio sync' instead of 'lip sync' when linking zones. You can cast HDMI / optical etc from zone to zone with MusicCast.
To make it easier (so the end user doesn't have to press the link button in the amp) simply press Main Sync - it leaves the main zone running natively AND plays the second zone in sync. Super simple.

Opti out of TV, then off to an amp?

I wouldn't even try this because the TV will likely insert its own delay, attempting to compensate for its internal video processing delay. This delay will compete with the A/V receiver's delay. Plus, I may need to use the TV's optical output to work around ARC's sillyness.

When you're in a large room, or in a home with rooms far apart, any such lateness sounds normal -- we've come to expect it. Also, it really matters that the far room is much lower in volume heard in the near room, the effect is minor.


Lucky you!

New Integra receiver in place.

Don't want to get locked into main zone stereo mode to make it work.

No A/B speaker options.