Need some help with C2 & Surround Back speakers.

[slayer]

Not sure if anyone is on this forum anymore but thought I would give it a try. I've had my C2 for years. Not sure how long now but I'm guessing it's been close to 10 years. Still love it. never been a need to upgrade or downgrade just to get the new decoding. My plan all along was to just add an Oppo BluRay player that has analog outs to get the new audio formats. That way I can use the 7.1 analog inputs on my C2.
Anyway, bored, decided to add surround back speakers to my system. I use a Cinenova Grande 5ch amp for my main 5 speakers and added a small 2ch amp I had laying around to run the surround back speakers. It's an auto sensing amp and should just fire up when a signal is present.
In the C2 menu, I switched the back speakers to "2 small". Set their distance. I will calibrate them when my kids are not here. For now I just wanted to fire them up with a movie and see how they sound. I use a PS3 as my BluRay/DVD player with the TosLink output into the C2.
For whatever reason, I don't get any output to the speakers/amp. It isn't firing up and just stays in standby mode. Am I missing a setting on the Halo? I know I'm not getting a true 7ch signal but shouldn't a 5.1 signal be enough? I thought the C2 will take the signal from the surround speakers and feed it to the back speakers if they are turned on???

Anyone?

[Chris D]

Hey, Slayer! Yup, the forum is absolutely still going, and I'll keep it going with just as much activity as you guys as members want it to have.

Happy New Year, everyone!!! :banana:

It sounds pretty straightforward, that your rear channels just aren't using a signal. If you're using Toslink from the PS3, then you're going to be limited to the legacy audio formats like Dolby Digital 5.1. Unless you do something in your C2 to turn it into a 7.1 signal, there's nothing to put out to the rear speakers. So the first and easiest thing for you to do would be to turn on the DPLIIx processing. (you did do the firmware update for this, right?) I love the DPLIIx processing in the C1/C2, and use it in ALL sources, audio and video to turn it into a 7.1 soundfield.

Like you, I'm still using my C1 here in 2013, 10 years after I got it. Far from just "limping along", it's providing me with the cleanest, best sound I could be getting without having to spend $100,000. If you haven't already, check out my thread on how I added high-rez lossless HDMI audio to my C1. This is, even today, keeping my C1 fully current with modern technologies and retaining its high-end audio performance. I'll bump my thread for an easy view.

[slayer]

Hey Chris. Been a long time. I got it going. While I don't care for prologic, I did switch to the Dolby EX and got them going. Tried the THX Surround EX and THX2Cinema EX as well.
The manual shows in the THX settings that you can set for when there is an EX flag in the audio signal. Yet it's nowhere in the menu.
I remember you adding an Onkyo receiver for decoding but am yet to check it out. I will read it again. If I go with an OPPO with analog out, I bypass all the C2 processing which will be a negative like bass mgnt and such. I'll read your thread. Thanks for the help.
And for the record, my system is still better than 99% of the systems I hear today with the new formats. The Halo is just that smooth.

[slayer]

BTW, a friend of mine I work with is into audio as well. I never knew it until we happened to start talking when he saw me checking out an Audio Advisor sale ad. He was a stereo only guy but wanted to branch out into the theater side. He already had a Parasound 2ch amp and an older Parasound stereo preamp. He used a MF V-Dac with some ribbon tweeter speakers. After hearing I had the Halo and the MF Tri-Vista Dac..... he ended up getting a newer Classic series A/V pre/pro and found a 5ch Parasound amp. He loves Parasound and new just what my C2 was and couldn't believed I owned one and he never knew. lol Guess it's not one of those things you mention to the average Joe. haha

[Chris D]

yeah, I was just reviewing some older posts over the last few days, and was wondering about you, slayer. Great to see you still jamming with the Halo gear like me, especially the C1/C2. There's just not a need to move on!

I'm hoping to get a Parasound DAC to up the game even more on my audio gear.

[Peter Nielsen]

Hey Slayer!

Check that you have the most recent firmware installed. I remember that there was a fix that took care of some issues with the rear surrounds. It's quite possible that you ran into an old bug that there is a firmware fix for...

[slayer]

How's going Peter? Been awhile. I can't imaging what your system might be these days. lol I fell out of the game for some time now. Divorce and such. Still rocking the C2. Got more into my cars as a hobby. I have a C5 Corvette that sucks up funds as well as a 1946 International Harvester hotrod I'm building.I have checked several times to see if they have done anything but Parasound has abandoned the platform. So I have the last one they came out with. It works fine. Just had to select a mode that outputs to the two rears. I'm gonna end up doing what Chris did or replace the Halo all together. Depends on the deal that comes along.

[Peter Nielsen]

I switched to JBL Synthesis One Array speakers and TacT Audio electronics a few years ago. (I still use the big Maggies for stereo listening). Unfortuately the TacT TCS Mk III processor was buggy. They never got the bugs worked out, and since last summer nobody has been able to get hold of anybody at TacT. Looks like the company is history. Because of the issues with TacT, I replaced all amplification and processing with JBL Synthesis last fall. I'm still waiting for the JBL SDP-45 (a rebadged Bryston SP-3) that supposedly will be available mid-February.

In the meantime I picked up an Onkyo preprocessor (PR-SC5509) which works and sounds great. The Onkyo PR-SC5509 (MSRP $2499) has 9.2 outputs (XLR and RCA), 8 HDMI inputs and is IMHO an excellent and reasonably priced replacement for an aging C1/C2. It has everything the C2 had plus a lot more like Audyssey room correction. C1 owners may be missing the LCD though :

[Chris D]

There ya go. Good stuff. Have you found the Onkyo to have comparable audio clarity to the Halo, Peter?

[Peter Nielsen]

There ya go. Good stuff. Have you found the Onkyo to have comparable audio clarity to the Halo, Peter?

Unfortunately I can't do a side by side comparison between the Halo and Onkyo, since I sold my Halo years ago. However, the Onkyo sounds excellent.

What I miss in the Onkyo is a pure 7.1 analog pass-through and I also don't care about the video processing and all the legacy video inputs that makes the rear panel of the Onkyo cluttered. However, the Halo was not better in these respects either. For the money, the Onkyo is awesome and equipped with all the latest bells and whistles like easy firmware upgrade over Ethernet! :T