Strange curiosity about adding avr to int amp for surround.

[WideEyedToad]

I had a thought and wonder if this would be possible.

I have a 2.1 int amp.
Connect an AVR to the 2.1.
2.1 power F and R, while 5.1 AVR powers center, rear F and rear R, center and sub. But use Bluetooth for the rears, I dont want cables running from AVR to behind me.
Feasible?

 

[RandomEar]

The Bluetooth is what's critical about this. Using an AVR but "re-routing" 2 channels to another amp: No problem. But with Bluetooth, you never know what latency there will be with the pairing of devices you've got until you measure it. The latency can cause phase issues between front and rear speakers and - if you're unlucky and it's 100+ ms - actually lead to echo-like effects.

My opinion: Not worth it. Either use Bluetooth for all speakers, leveling out the latency, or don't use it at all. Never mix Bluetooth with wired speakers in one setup.

 

[TheKoC]

Not really, Signal path should be AVR -> int amp. Bluetooth wont usually be useable, I dont know an AVR that outputs rears as bluetooth. How do you want to power the rears? Active Speakers, or an additional Amp with Passive Speakers?
What you could use for example: An AVR with Line Outs, than a wireless 2,4 GHz Audio Transmitter (look on amazon for example), and then either active speakers or amp+passive speakers for the rears.
Or look into a WISA wireless sourround system, if you want to go a specialized wireless route.

 

[mhardy6647]

Latency is the big bugbear of digital wireless.
Analog wireless ("radio" ,to us old geezers) generally has latency determined by c (i.e., 3.8E8 m/sec), so not really a big deal.
The digital world is another kettle of fish, as noted above.
The tech bros call this innovation.

 

[DVDdoug]

Bluetooth doesn't support surround sound, so setting-up 5.1 channels (or more) all with Bluetooth to match latency (delay) would be tricky... You'd need multiple transmitters/receivers.

A few milliseconds of latency isn't a problem if everything has the same latency, unless you are playing games or watching video and then you'll get "lip sync" problems.

There are various ways of hiding wires...

A lot of people use separate power amps with an AVR, but do you really need it? Does the integrated amp have more power and do you need more power? Or you need the extra inputs/controls, or something?

An AVR is essentially an integrated amp plus a tuner, DAC, surround decoder, and more amplifier channels, etc.

Typically the subwoofer is active/powered and in that case it doesn't need an amp and you can plug it into the AVR.

 

[WideEyedToad]

Ah then I'll have to get creative with the wires. It's hardwood floor so its not like I can route it under the carpet.
The amp has plenty of power, but only has 2 channels.

The surrounds i looked at was the Bose ones. I assumed they were phasable? Maybe the AVR can? I have no clue.

My mother had an AVR that had phase and db for every channel, so thought that was standard.

 

[kyuu]

By phase do you mean delay? If so yes that is standard. However, there's a limit to the amount of delay, and of course since it can't move the Bluetooth speakers up in time it will have to delay the other speakers to match. Even if the amount of delay due to the Bluetooth connection (I'm assuming you'd be using some sort of third party Bluetooth transceiver) can be compensated for, there's the possibility that the delay will be so long you'll have issues with the audio being noticably out of sync with the video. Not necessarily an issue if the setup is strictly for audio.

There's a reason Bluetooth is not utilized for this generally. It's really not fit for purpose. That's why you generally have wires, or utilize proprietary wireless technologies like WiSA.

 

[WideEyedToad]

Ah that clears things up a bit. I will not venture into 5.1 just yet. For now, im looking at a streamer, and better video streamer (firestick 4k).
Wiim uktra or bluesound nano to plug into my int amp (which has dual dacs).