Speaker detect doesn't work with Surround Rear Left TX-NR709

Just picked up a new TX-NR709 receiver to fill in while my TX-SR707 is being repaired for no audio out. I connected my two fronts and center as required, but I connected two rear surround sound speakers to the surround wide connections. All went OK. Then after reading more in the manual it was recommended that the sourround rear connections be used. However, the receiver does not correctly detect the left surround. The test signal is passed to it with good volume, but the blue indication on the TV screen indicating which speaker is being detected doesn't light up for the left side. I pulled the plug and left the receiver off for a few minutes and retried but still no surround left detect. I swapped the right and left speaker wires and still the left side malfunctioned. So I have returned to using the surround wide connections. The fact that the blue speaker indicator fails when connected this way tells me that something is amiss with the receiver.

Any ideas or is this new receiver going in for repair or exchange after I get my other one back? Does using the surround wide instead of the regular surround connections change the 5.1 performance? Could I go on with this setup and not lose any performance? Since it is only two days old I guess I could return it to the merchant.

interesting, my first 709 stopped outputting audio to the rear left channel all of the sudden. factory reset didn't help

I returned the TX-NR709 for the speaker detect issue. Setup the new unit and have the same problem. Checked the speaker impedance's and found that the two rear speakers (Klipsch) are 5.4 ohms for both and they are identical. Since my speaker system did not have any such problems with a 607 or a 707, I am beginning to feel that there is some problem with the 709. Several other forum entries have referred to having problems with the left surround speaker position.

I have the 2 channel feature set in the speaker setup section. I have tried setting speaker impedance's at all impedance settings.

I can use the rear surround wide outputs with no problem, just the surround rear connections. When going through the automatic speaker setup, the test sound comes from the suspect speaker, but the animation on the TV screen does not show the left side speakers in blue as all the other speaker positions are shown. As soon as I move it to the wide connections, the speaker setup works as it should.

I'm stuck. Will be checking to see if there is a firmware update.

Audyssey isn't working right for a lot of us after the last firmware update.

and the fact that the rear left channel seems to be so problematic, it really makes you wonder about this unit.

a lot of people never upgrade the firmware at home, don't have rear surrounds, and/or don't use Audyssey. so a lot of these glitches probably go unnoticed/unreported.

Having two new receivers exhibit the same problem was driving me crazy, so I looked around the web and found other forums discussing the same speaker detect problem.

Quote from a Crutchfield forum, from the Administrator "Make sure you have your surround speakers connected to the Surround terminals and not the Surround Back terminals. This will cause the error every single time.
The receiver needs to see surround speakers before it sees surround back speakers."

An important fact missing from the Manual for the TX-NR709 receiver.

Hi Boney,

Are connecting this up in a 5.1 setup or a 7.1 setup and have you followed the chart that is on page 13 of the manual?

I am connecting speakers in a 5.0 configuration. The only place in the documentation that specifically speaks to this is the blue fold out diagram of various speaker setups. The manual itself does not speak to this requirement of connecting to surround rather than surround back. When connected to surround, the Audesy setup works as advertised. Even the setup diagram does not stress that the surround should be used rather than the surround back

Seems as though the messages presented during that automatic setup should detect the incorrect speaker connections and state that in a message on the screen. It cost me a trip back to the vendor, over an hours wait for the exchange and repeating the problem with the newest receiver.

The only issue now is that the surround speakers, at times, sound like bubbling water is running somewhere. The latest firmware suggests that this is an issue that it will solve. Haven't performed the firmware upgrade yet but will today.

Hi Boney,

Apologies for the misunderstanding please try the update tonight and see if this resolves that issue with the surround speakers. Also note you can adjust the volume of these speakers as well as all the speakers that are connected.