Stupid Question About Receivers

[Andúril]

I recently got a PS3 and am thinking of buying Sony's STRDG720 A/V Receiver.

However, I only have the speakers for a 5.1 setup and won't be able to buy a full 7.1 set for quite a while. Does the receiver still sound well and balance everything out, even if it isn't using all the outputs for 7.1? Or am I just better off staying with my old receiver until I have all the speakers?

[Rishi]

Playing back a 7.1 track on a 5.1 system will sound just fine. For a back pan, for example, instead of a sound going surround left -> left back -> right back -> surround right, it will just go surround left -> surround right.

[Aurora]

A 7.1 receiver (virtually all these days) has various settings for the number of speakers you actually connect to it. It doesn't assume all 7 are connected and then leave holes in the soundfield as it tries to send sound to speakers that aren't there. All you do is tell it you only have hooked up 5, and you're in business.

[daybreaker]

I really want to pick up a 720 but I'm not sure if it's worth it for me My 9 year old receiver is just as awesome as it ever was...and I'd have to buy another HDMI cable. Although one thing I hate about my receiver now is that the 5.1 analog input bypasses the EQ...which makes no sense to me...leaving DVD-A discs from my Denon player sounding like they came from a clock radio...what's up with that?

[junglalien]

Originally Posted by daybreaker

I really want to pick up a 720 but I'm not sure if it's worth it for me My 9 year old receiver is just as awesome as it ever was...and I'd have to buy another HDMI cable. Although one thing I hate about my receiver now is that the 5.1 analog input bypasses the EQ...which makes no sense to me...leaving DVD-A discs from my Denon player sounding like they came from a clock radio...what's up with that?

You can get a 6' HDMI cable for under $6 shipped. Its the special right now at monoprice. I think I'm going to order one just to have as a spare.
http://www.monoprice.com/products/pr...seq=1&format=2

[Andúril]

Thanks everybody, I guess that clarifies things now.