3.1 speaker setup with a denon 1909 ..

[readysalted]

Hi all.

I'm on the verge of buying myself an AV receiver (Denon 1909) and speakers (Tannoy SFX 5.1) to go with my PS3 & 42 Samsung TV. This package is in my 'annual bonus' budget, and I've read good things about both. These will replace my cambridge audio a5 & JPW speakers (bought when I were a student, 10 years ago )

I don't really want to run cables around the side of the living at the moment so I'm wondering if I can get away with only hooking up the 2 front speakers, centre & sub for now. I only redecorated 6 months ago and I don't think my wife would be too happy if I pulled the carpet up again

I don't know much at all about home cinema setup though, so I'm wondering whether not using the rear speakers is a) possible and b) will be satisfactory. Any speaker advice anyone can give would be much appreciated.

If it is not going to work, or will the amp would be better off with just stereo speakers, I will stick with my JPWs for now and get the speakers when we eventually extend the house and I have a bigger room to put all 7.1 speakers in

[snig300]

would also like to know the answer to this post as 3.1 is what im thinking on getting?

[biggy7]

also interested in this

if the movie outputs in 5.1 and you have a 3.1 setup

can you set the amp to tell it you have 3.1 speaker setup?

or will it still think theres a 5.1 setup installed and you'll just miss the rear sounds?

[readysalted]

Altho no one here has answered I have subsequently found posts that suggest that the amp will down mix to 3.1. You have to set up the amp initially and can indicate that there are no rear speakers. I'm going to ask my local richer sounds chaps and see what they say ...

[PD5200]

I have been running 3.0 for a few years. As the fronts are pretty large I'm not really missing the .1 .

The rear speakers (that I don't have) only carry effects so although you'll miss the surround-sound 'WOW' factor, some proper fronts and a centre will still give far far better sound than from a TV...

(all that said, I'm now looking to move up to 7.0!).