HELP with Denon 1908 needed (outdoor speakers setup)

[PhenomeNhan]

Can someone who's knowledgeable with these damn Denon receivers help walk me thru setting up my friend's Denon 1908 to output sound to a pair of outdoor speakers? His father-in-law might have messed up some configurations, so I'm trying to set it back to normal. The problem is the denon's manual is an absolute nightmare to work with. And i don't know if the unit may have some defects or not (hopefully, it's just user error on my part).

I've tried a couple of configurations (using the B-speaker binding posts and using the Back Surround Speaker binding posts). All sources (except for iPod dock, which seems to be not working at the moment, but that's another story) are hooked up via optical or coax. I can't find anywhere in the manual where it says you needed to using analog interconnects for b-speakers or zone 2 to work.

When using B-speakers only (A-speakers turned off), if I'm listening to a non-stereo program, the main system's speakers (center and surrounds are still active). This makes some sense, but my buddy swears that before his father-in-law 'messed things up', that the center and surrounds produced no sound when the turned the A-speakers off.

I've tried setting up the back surround amps to power the outdoor speakers (zone 2). This is Setting 1 in the Amp Assign/Multizone Connections and Operations section (page 52) of the manual.

So can anyone with a Denon receiver and outdoors speakers setup help a dumbass like me out? :D

[Ray3]

Nhan - this whole thing assumes you CAN be helped! :assshake:

I'll assume you've seen page 27 of the 1908 manual.

First thing to do is simple - make sure both A and B LEDS are lit at the same time. Lotsa problems go away when you do that.

In the "System setup menu" there should be an option for "Zone 2 control," select this. In that menu look for "Zone 2 vol. level," select that. Make sure it is set to variable (yours might be set to -40).

Also, check out this guy's information. Pretty good (follow his links):

http://batpigworld.com/

Finally, I did a search for zone 2 on the Denon 1908 Owners thread in AVS and there is information there that will help you:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=985042&highlight=zone

I saw something about going to Amp assign in the menus and setting it to Zone 2 - might be worth a look.

The reason I am sending you to the info that I am is because I don't know what his Dad did to trash the 1908 settings and vanilla answers may not help, but these pieces should be helpful.

[chessman]

It has been awhile since I had a Denon receiver, but I think I recall that if one selects 7 channel it disables zone 2.

[PhenomeNhan]

Thx for the help guys. I'll review the provided links. O did mess with both the a/b buttons for all combos. I did the amp assigned options but without success.

[PhenomeNhan]

Just as I suspected, it seems I need analog cables to make Zone 2 work. I'll get a couple of pairs from Monoprice and see how that works out :) Thx for the help.