XMC-1 - Is there a way to disable 7.1 outputs?

[mccarty350]

Here is my scenario:
1. I have a 8 channel buckeye amp.
2. Channels 1-5 are used for 5 front/left/right/surround left/surround right/center and are plugged into the 7.1 analog ouputs of the xmc-1.
3. This leaves me with 2 channels that I can send to another set of dedicated two channel speakers apart from the ones that are part of my 5.1 home theater setup.
4. Unfortunately even if I use zone 1 or zone 2 two channel outputs directly into the two remaining channels on the buckeye the XMC-1 will continue to send output to the 7.1 outputs in parallel. This means that if I want to play music to my 2 channel system the 7.1 analog outs will in parallel play the same output on the HT speakers.

How can I restrict output to only the two channel zone 1 or zone 2 outputs (or any analog 2 channel outputs) so that my 5.1 system doesn't play in parallel while I'm attempting to only use my two channel setup?

Let me know if I need to rephrase the question or if it doesn't make sense. As far as I can tell all analog outputs are active at all times.

Thanks,

John

[AudioHTIT]

Oct 31, 2023 21:49:03 GMT -5 mccarty350 said:

Here is my scenario:
1. I have a 8 channel buckeye amp.
2. Channels 1-5 are used for 5 front/left/right/surround left/surround right/center and are plugged into the 7.1 analog ouputs of the xmc-1.
3. This leaves me with 2 channels that I can send to another set of dedicated two channel speakers apart from the ones that are part of my 5.1 home theater setup.
4. Unfortunately even if I use zone 1 or zone 2 two channel outputs directly into the two remaining channels on the buckeye the XMC-1 will continue to send output to the 7.1 outputs in parallel. This means that if I want to play music to my 2 channel system the 7.1 analog outs will in parallel play the same output on the HT speakers.

How can I restrict output to only the two channel zone 1 or zone 2 outputs (or any analog 2 channel outputs) so that my 5.1 system doesn't play in parallel while I'm attempting to only use my two channel setup?

Let me know if I need to rephrase the question or if it doesn't make sense. As far as I can tell all analog outputs are active at all times.

Thanks,

John

I do something like that by using separate amps for HT and 2C, triggers then turn the appropriate amps on and off. However, using the same amp for two different purposes negates that option. Only having Zone 2 on, might do what you want, but haven’t tried it.

[mccarty350]

You got it. I have a total of 3 amps and use triggers with them so indeed, that is the game plan with my other amps but the extra two amp channels were purchased for this purpose - I was short sighted in assuming I could pull off some execution with the XMC-1 to leverage them. I'll see if I can select 'powering off' zone 1 and powering on zone 2 only and see if that works. The other piece is that I need to be able to automate these things with a logitech harmony but this looks like it would be wholly manual every time.

[AudioHTIT]

Nov 1, 2023 7:22:58 GMT -5 mccarty350 said:

You got it. I have a total of 3 amps and use triggers with them so indeed, that is the game plan with my other amps but the extra two amp channels were purchased for this purpose - I was short sighted in assuming I could pull off some execution with the XMC-1 to leverage them. I'll see if I can select 'powering off' zone 1 and powering on zone 2 only and see if that works. The other piece is that I need to be able to automate these things with a logitech harmony but this looks like it would be wholly manual every time.

I don’t think the Harmony should be a limitation, as long as you have both the XMC-1 primary device, and the XMC-1 Zone 2 device loaded. Is this a hub based remote? (not sure if it matters)

[mccarty350]

No, it's a harmony one but I am not sure if there are discrete commands that will turn the 'power' checkbox on and off on zone1 or zone2 or if I'd have to generate some bastardized macro that went to menu and navigated through the xmc-1 menus to turn it on/off. The lag on the menu navigation would probably also tank a macro unless it queued up the ir signals and spoon fed them to the xmc-1 if that makes sense.

[AudioHTIT]

Nov 1, 2023 14:55:52 GMT -5 mccarty350 said:

No, it's a harmony one but I am not sure if there are discrete commands that will turn the 'power' checkbox on and off on zone1 or zone2 or if I'd have to generate some bastardized macro that went to menu and navigated through the xmc-1 menus to turn it on/off. The lag on the menu navigation would probably also tank a macro unless it queued up the ir signals and spoon fed them to the xmc-1 if that makes sense.

So, what I was saying above is that you need to load two devices for the XMC-1, one for controlling the main system (named something like XMC-1), and a second for Zone 2 (with an equally clever name like XMC-1 Zone 2), Harmony treats them as two separate devices, and gives you access to the discrete commands to turn it on and off, as well as change inputs. If you don’t have the second device loaded add it, search for something like Emotiva & Zone 2, anything that says XMC or RMC will work.

Here’s how the two devices look on my iPad, you can see from the green, red, and white power buttons that you have discrete on / off, and power toggle, for both the main system, and Zone 2.

[mccarty350]

GOT IT! That looks radically different than my version of my harmony. Those are indeed super clever and original names lol

That's literally genius. I'm totally going to try it out. My 2nd buckeye just came in the mail hours ago, time to get to cabling.

I love them btw, changed my whole school of thought on class D.

[mccarty350]

Bad news. No power setting/ability to shut off zone 1. It was great in concept though.

[mccarty350]

Next approach will be to determine how to control volume for each zone and perhaps I can mute the main zone and leave zone 2 unmuted.

[mccarty350]

I'm getting closer. The mute button only mutes the main zone. That means that if I can find a way to control zone 2 volume from a remote separately that I can mute the mains and then just use the zone two volume. I see that it is a separate control on the original remote but the harmony remote has no zone 2 volume options. I may have to learn the codes from the original to map it to buttons.

[AudioHTIT]

Nov 1, 2023 19:53:51 GMT -5 mccarty350 said:

I'm getting closer. The mute button only mutes the main zone. That means that if I can find a way to control zone 2 volume from a remote separately that I can mute the mains and then just use the zone two volume. I see that it is a separate control on the original remote but the harmony remote has no zone 2 volume options. I may have to learn the codes from the original to map it to buttons.

Do you have the Ethernet port hooked up? You could use the Emotiva remote app to contol both zones if you turn both Zone 1 and Zone 2 on, then shut off Z1, Z2 will stay on (you can tell Z2 is on because the power button will change colors).

[mccarty350]

I am an android user and it is no longer in the app store. Maybe I can find it online and sideload it?