Can you use 5.1 speaker system with 7.1 receiver?

[Steve Mackay]

I thought I posted this yesterday but it must have gotten burried. Sorry for the re-post if someone found it somewhere else.

It's hard to find a 5.1 receiver these days all of them seem to be 7.1 but my room is too small for a 7.1 system (and there are no good placements fot eh extra 2). Can I buy a 7.1 receiver and just use a 5.1 speaker setup leaving the 2 rear speaker terminals empty?

 

[Inno]

Yes, I do believe you can......and because speaker placement is such a subjective and sometimes difficult thing to get right, 5.1 is plenty for most folks. I'm pretty sure most 7.1 receivers can be used with 5.1, they probaby even have a setting for it.

 

[charper1]

The short answer is yes you can

 

[ericha]

Receivers with 7.1 capability often have a second "zone", where you can assign 2 channels to play a completely different program, say in a different room. Take a look at the detailed specs for the receiver you are looking at. In this case, the receiver knows that there are only 5.1 channels to send out, so it should work great.

 

[Digital Dude]

Yes you can. When you go into setup most all allow you to specify size and whether or not a speaker is connected to each certain output.