newbie 5.1 hookup / settings help needed - sony 5200es amp

[modemocracy]

Just bought a used Sony 5200es and extra speakers to move up from stereo to 5.1.

I have them hooked up (2 front, 2 side or back, 1 front center). But when I try to play stereo music it only comes thru the orig 2 fronts. Tried playing a 5.1 dvd w/ blu ray player & hdmi into amp but still only 2 front speakers work.

The instruction book is dense, technical and deep into menus via an attached tv monitor, it never gets into "use" beyond setup. I'm pretty sure I have it hooked up right, just can't see if theres a setting etc that I need to address.

any help appreciated thanks, duane

 

[doolittle]

Took a look at the manuals yes it's a bit of a beast - if you want to get surround modes from 2-channel you have to use the virtual surround presets (see p58~68 in the "operating instructions") for music "multi-stereo" is probably the best bet since the other modes (pro-logic and DTS) are more for movies over 2-channel input. P69 goes through the manual speaker setup so hopefully you did that already or the auto-calibration with the mic attached to get the levels setup for each channel.

For the DVD playback if you have a digital input for sound (either via HDMI or optical or coax) you should be able to use one of the direct modes described on pages 65 & 66 and it will sound much better.

It's all a bit complex but once you get the hang of it you can enjoy your new AVR system much more.

cheers

 

[modemocracy]

Thanks - it was a used amp so it didnt come with remote, calibration mic or manual. I've downloaded the manual, and bought a mic. I tried what you suggested and got sound out of all 5 speakers. Thats a start - next step becoming more familiar and fine tuning it all.

Thanks a lot

 

[modemocracy]

Hi,

Thanks again for prev help. I am now plowing forward in further setup. The used Sony 5200es amp didnt come with remote control or calibration mic. The model of mic has been discontinued but I was able to find its SONY replacement new on ebay. (I was also able to find a knockoff replacement remote control which is clumsy but so far works.)

I tried running the auto-calibration, placed the mic at my listening position and hit the START button. It counted down, and ran thru about 10 sec of loud Beeps, Bops, Boops etc and then stopped, showing error code 32, which the book says meant that it didnt find any speakers. It implies the mic connection isnt working, but I plugged the mic into a little portable digital recorder and delivered a healthy signal.

Any suggestions? The only thing I can think of is poss the calibration mic jack being no good, but I think thats unlikely.

Thanks
Duane

 

[doolittle]

That's a bummer, if the auto-calibration does not work nothing wrong with going manual, where you sit around where the primary listening area is going to be (center of the couch?) and doing the manual level config - done that many times before all this auto stuff it's all good