Centre speaker ONLY setup on Pioneer VSX-LX70

[LMDavies]

Just moved from large house to small apartment. Can no longer play anything loud and Mrs does not want our heavy floor standers crushing our one year old baby when he topples them. Therefore I was thinking of just using the centre only speaker.

Amp is Pioneer VSX-LX70 - What is the best way to configure the amp and wiring to receive the best sound from the centre speaker ONLY?

Do I simply connect the centre speaker to the CENTRE output speaker terminals as normal or do I connect the + on LEFT(+) and - on RIGHT(-) outputs?

Centre speaker has bi-wireable connectors - What about connecting the LEFT output from the amp to the LF +/- terminals of the speaker and the RIGHT output of the amp to the HF +/- terminals?

[cebs_uk]

I know most amps offer a mode without the centre where the info is sent to the L/R and it seems you require the reverse. However I'm not sure if this is a common mode to be found, don't think I've seen it on any amp, also not to sure what happens if you set L/R to none if thats an option but it could be worth a try.

[LMDavies]

Thanks Cebs_uk. I quickly went into the manual Speaker setup today and all speaker channels can be turned off except the L/R fronts.

I did get sound output from the centre speaker when connecting my iPod and selecting ADV surround option but I reckon as soon as it receives a 5.1 signal, then thats when the problems are going to start.

What about connecting the 4 terminals on the centre speaker to the the L/R fronts on the amp and just setting up FRONT L/R on the amp?

[cebs_uk]

No probs, thats probably your best bet for now, set the centre to none and all the info is sent L/R and therefore your centre speaker. Just be careful not to overload it, the only speaker tweeter I ever blow is the centre and if you are using it for music keep it low but it sounds like you have no choice in that at the mo.

I'm fortunate now in that my boys are 5/9 and I have my own house and my own rules again so floorstanders aren't a problem anymore.

[PSM1]

Originally Posted by LMDavies

What about connecting the 4 terminals on the centre speaker to the the L/R fronts on the amp and just setting up FRONT L/R on the amp?

I do not think this is going to work. The biwireable centre will be split to feed the tweeter with one input and the mid/bass with another input. Hence if you connect L/R to it you are going to have a right mismatch of sound coming from the centre. If voices are coming from the left but this is connected to the LF input then you are going to miss these and similarly if you have a low sound from the right that is connected to the HF input then you will miss this. I do not think you will cause damage to the speaker because the internal crossovers should deal with this.
You would be better to get some wall mountable L/R speakers like something from the Monitor Audio Radius/Radius HD ranges. Then either get a matching centre or have no centre at all.

[LMDavies]

Originally Posted by PSM1

I do not think this is going to work..

Thanks PSM - My centre does have 2x mid/bass and 1x tweeter but only the 4 connectors for LF/HF.

I suppose I could use my bi-pole rears for the fronts?

Avant 903i bipole / Avant 900i / Products / Mordaunt Short

Any risk of damage using them on the fronts?

[PSM1]

Bipole speakers are designed to give a diffused sound so ideal as rears. Not sure ow they will perform at the front. But since you have them it would not hurt to try them out to see how they sound. I do not think you will damage either the speakers or amp doing it but itjust may not sound very good.

[LMDavies]

Will give them a try - I will probably end up just setting up the floor standers and keeping the volume low. However I need to find a good way of securing them to avoid toppling when the 1yr old tries to push them over.

[PSM1]

I have a 3year old and had floorstanders since b4 he was born. I have been lucky in the fact he has never shown an interest in the speakers. Hopefully you will have the same luck.