Need some help...

[afrakes]

Hello all, I'm a big car audiophile but have just recently discovered home audio. Still not familiar with major brands besides mainstream as it is a big world out there. Anyways, my brothe gave me his old receiver (Yamaha rx-v520rds) recently and my father in law gave me a set of 5 speakers (center channel, and 4 bookshelf). The center channel sounds great and crisp but I noticed when I put my ears up to the sorround speakers they not only are barely audible on normal volume but they sound fuzzy and distorted. Thinking I had blown speakers I got some old used speakers from my boss that I know work, as he used them in his bar up until recently when he upgraded. I plugged them in and the same thing happened. So then i plugged each speaker I had (4 original, 4 from my boss) into the center channel input and it worked great! Each speaker was loud and crisp. I'm wondering if this is a problem with the receiver? It is over 10 years old but my brother used it up until about a year ago. I can post pics of said receiver and connections if need be.

[Rich Schenk]

Sounds like the reciever invest in a new one.

[afrakes]

Just the channels going bad you think?

[bbeljefe]

The surround channels on a surround sound system are time delayed, sometimes phased differently and are never supposed to be as loud as the LCRs. (left, center, right).

Surround channels are not supposed to be localizable, they're supposed to trick your ears into thinking that something is happening behind you when it's not. That can't be accomplished if they are in phase with and at the same volume levels as the front speakers.

There's nothing wrong with your surround processor, the amp or your speakers. You're just expecting the rear channels of a surround sound system to be the same thing that the rear channels of a car audio setup are. ;-)

[truthsayer]

First off get rid of the yamaha, and only go with Onkyo. And if you are hearing distortion then yes there is a problem. While the rear channels wont seem loud, when something is supposed to be heard from the, say like helicopter rotors, rain or explosions. They should be just as loud as the front channels. Small surrounds also will loose out on the lower midrange and bass tones. This is why when you really get into it you will run 7 full range speakers. Bigger the better in my opinion. Also two subwoofers, one in front and one in the back.

[afrakes]

That's the problem, is my left and right channels are playing quietly too. 1 speaker is my center, an works great. I have 2 speakers Hooke up (one left channel, one right channel, and 2 speakers to the rear surround). The surround speakers sound the exact same as the left an right channels. Quiet, fuzzy and distorted. I get that the speakers are supposed to trick my ears. But they don't. There isn't much of an "experience" at all. Even when playing the opening scene in saving private Ryan, you can't even hardly tell there are multiple speakers. I just don't want to invest in a new receiver if I don't need to.

[afrakes]

Each bookshelf has a 4" or 5" mid and a tweeter too. I have zero amps as everything is running off the receiver. Could this be my problem? Also no sub stage in my system yet.