HT-ZF9 Is it possible to get stereo music to come out of SA-Z9R rear speakers as well as soundbar?

[Roger_H]

Have this wonderful set-up which allows me to stream music from my PC via the home network using the Sony Music Centre for PC and the Sony app on my andriod phone to control the whole thing.

Is there a system setting on the HT-ZF9 that allows me to utilise the SA-Z9R rear speakers to play stereo music to give a fuller sound stage.  The operating instructions are not clear on this.  There are links on the PDF that take you round and round in circles but you never arrive at the answer.

It must be technically possible as the music is stereo (left and right channels) so the sound just needs to be directed to the left and right rear channels if the user requires.

[Roger_H]

Whilst on the phone to Sony support about another issue I asked about this.

Their answer was the source is stereo encoded and not surround sound encoded so music will only come from the HT-ZF9 unit and not the rear speakers.

Wonder if Sony missed a trick here as wouldn't be hard to allow the user to choose to playback music thru the rear speakers if desired.

But basically the answer is No.

[HannahEd01]

Hi Roger_H, this is technically not possible, they gave you the right answer.

Surround sound features a multi-channel system, while stereo is 2 channels. Audio is mixed into a sound field for surround sound, but only into 2 tracks for a stereo system. Surround sound can have 3 or more speakers (typically 5 or 7), whereas stereo only has 2 speakers.

[royabrown2]

@HannahEd01

While what you say about stereo is true, it is a design decision by Sony not to replicate the stereo into the two rear speakers, for the fuller sound field @Roger_H is seeking, when only stereo is being supplied.

My LG GX soundbar does exactly this into its wireless rears when fed with a stereo-only signal.

[Roger_H]

The reply below would suggest that it is technically possible to direct the stereo output thru the rear speakers as well.

Does anyone from Sony product development actually read/monitor these discussion threads?

Would expect it to be a case of a software change to enable this functionallity.

[Roger_H]

It's a shame Sony don't develop this.

Was watching a film the other evening which had music played thru all the speakers.  The soundstage sounded fantastic.

[Roger_H]

Had another thought about this. Decades ago when car stereos started having 4 speakers (2 front, 2 rear) they quite easily fed the stereo signal to the 4 speakers (left channel to front and rear left speakers and right channel to front and rear right speakers) so I don't see this as asking for the impossible.

As someone else said another company does do this on their TV surround system.

[royabrown2]

@Roger_H 

Via this link:-

https://www.lg.com/us/support/product/lg-GX.DUSALLK
you can download the User Manual for the LG GX soundbar I own, and read about the possibilities for distributing stereo sound when using the SPK8 add-on rear speakers I use with it.

(This is a US link, me not being able to find a UK link at the moment, but the details are the same as the UK for this purpose).

This tells you three things:-

(i) it is indeed doable;

(ii) it needs to be built-in to the soundbar;

(iii) it is specific (in this case at least) to one particular pair of wireless rears.

From what I can see in the manuals for the corresponding Sony items, nothing like this is possible with them. If you feed stereo sound to the bar, and either nothing comes out of the rears, or pseudo-surround comes out of the rears, rather than stereo distributed as you describe, then I fear you are SOOL 😢