colinhester Messages: 1349 Registered: May 2009 Location: NE Arkansas
Illuminati (3rd Degree)
You need some kind of decoer to send the unique signals to each amp. Do you have a 5.1 or 7.1 preamp/decoder? If not these can be picked up pretty cheap at the usual consumer electronic stores. Look for one with pre-outs - this way you can use your own amps. Yamaha makes a really nice one for less than $400 The surround speakers should not make that much of a difference if they are not the same. I would try running w/o center channel just to see if you like it. Believe it or not, there are a lot of people that prefer phantom center.....Colin