Replacing 5+1 with 4-Channel System How to

Hi !

I have an idea (may be its wrong) to replace home theater 5+1 plastic junk (1 subwoofer + 4 satellites) with 4 channel system (4 large Sansui 3-way speakers + 4-channel amplifier). The sources are DVD player, and most important, Linux PC based multimedia setup box.

Anyone can suggest me if I am thinking right direction, or I am totally wrong?

If this is OK, how to convert 5+1-channel audio to 4 channel?

Thanks in advance for any suggestion(s)

I do it.

right now I have a sansui QRX-7001 quad receiver in my bedroom. The synthesizer does a great job of turning 2 channel music into 4 channel. The computer has an older SB live which will downmix 5.1 info into 4 channels. The front and rear outputs of the sound card go into the appropriate discrete inputs on the sansui. The DVD player I have is an older sony NS-90v which has built in DTS and Dolby decoders that also has multi-channel analog out. I simply set up to downmix 5.1 into 4 channels through the DVD player's audio setup menu.

There are other DVD players which will do this as well. Toshiba, denon, and pioneer had a few models about 2 years ago. Oppo is another popular brand, but it does not have the DTS decoder and doesn't work with down-mixing as well as the sony does IMO.

Here's an older thread I posted about the sony:
http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=60614

Any speakers will work, how well they work depends on the speakers, room positioning, and your expectations.

If you are running them from a HT receiver or processor, you normally program the receiver/processor with the number of speakers connected. Then, the receiver downmixes the sound according to your speaker configuration.

With 4 speakers, you could do front left and right, and the side/surround channels. As Face mentioned in the other thread, you could use Phantom center, although my personal preference is to use a center speaker instead of Phantom.