RSX-1057 - Assigning speakers to a second zone

[Chicagohonda]

Hello - I am considering purchasing a Rotel RSX-1057 + RB-1070 amplifier -OR- Arcam AVR-300 to power my B&W DM603S3 surround sound speaker setup.

I would like to add the extra 2-channel amp to power the front speakers and redirect the 6 and 7th amplifiers (the presence speakers on a 7.1 system) to speakers on Zone2. nes 6 and 7 to Zone 2 (a pair of outside speakers). Does anyone know if this is a simple setup with the Rotel RSX-1057+ RB-1070 setup? It seems as if this may be simple with the ARCAM AVR-300.

Also, can someone comment as to whether there are any concerns with providing the front speakers with 130W of power and the center and rear speakers with 75W of power -- all this in 5.1 mode. Could the sound possibly be out of balance.

Further, the price I have been quoted is $1299 USD for the RSX-1057 and $599 for the RB-1070 and $1699 for the AVR-300. Then the dealer is going to give me a 13% discount any anything I purchase. Does that sound fair?

Thanks ... sorry if these questions are quite simple ... however I am a novice!

[rick c]

I have the rsx1056 with the 603s3's also.I also have a rb1050 amp for my outdoor speakers.It is very simple.The only thing i did it awhile ago so i cant be exact in the setup (hate to tell you the wrong way).Either way if you have the manual it's self explanatory.The thing is when you want to play via the outdoor speaks just have to enable the zone2 feature.I've played HT in my family room while my other family members have listen to music outside at the same time.I think it's a great feature.

[hifiguymi]

Setting up the Rotel pieces to do what you want is very easy. The redirect feature in the receiver is very simple to set up. I don't have any personal experience with the Arcam, but if it's like most other two zone receivers it should be easy to set up as well.

As long as you calibrate your system correctly with an SPL meter, I don't think you'll notice any difference between the amplifier power with the Rotel combo. If the center and rears are set to small and with only three amps playing (assuming the second zone will be off when you are sitting down to watch a movie), they will keep up with the RB-1070 just fine. If you listen to two channel music it will be better having the RB-1070 on the front channels as well.

As you can tell, I'm partial to Rotel, so that is the way I'd go. I hope this helped.

Eric

[srb]

Keep in mind that the Rotel (and many other AVR/processors) can only pass analog signals to Zone 2.

So if your source was the digital output from a CD or DVD player, you would need to also connect the analog output of the player to another input to be able to pass that source to Zone 2.

Steve