Rick Motz

Using Multiple Amps

I have a situation that I need help with. I have noticed that while playing music through my Surround Receiver it does not sound as good as my Dennon stereo amp. Now I have been playing music with the Dennon on the right and left front speakers, however when I watch a movie I have to switch them back manually at this time to the Sony surround amp. Could I just leave the Dennon stereo amp hooked up to the front left and right speakers for movies as well?, or would that kill the surround effects? The front speakers are very large with a 12" woofer, some horns, and mids. They need a lot of power to make them sound good. Please help!

Dave Milne

Yes you can. I'm assuming you're connecting the Denon to the L-R "pre-out" jacks on the Sony. You can certainly leave it that way... it's a lot less hassle than reconnecting speaker cables all the time.

Some may argue that you should stick with the same brand/power of amps for all channels in a multichannel system. My personal experience is that amps (of reasonable quality) don't have a huge difference in timbre. If your outboard amp (Denon) has greater power output and less distortion, it will probably improve the overall sound for movies.

One caution: With more clean power to the front L-R speakers, you may be tempted to raise the level for movies to the point where the center channel runs out of gas and distorts. Movies have a lot of center-channel information and it's common to have the center complain before the front L-Rs. Just be "on the listen" for center-channel distress when you juice the volume

No. The surround channels will not be affected. However, you may need to re-adjust the front levels to match your center and surrounds since the Denon may have different gain than the Sony receiver amps.

Rick Motz

Thank You Dave for your reply! I have not connected the Dennon to the sony in any way yet, I was running directly from the output of the Sony DVD Player. Using it for music. I will have to check the Sony for any PRE-OUT type jacks, If there are none couldn't I go from the Left & Right Speaker Ouputs to the Dennon Amp? Is this still considered the same as Pre-Out? I will hold off any hook-ups until I hear from you. Thanks!

Geno

Rick, considering your last post -
"couldn't I go from the Left & Right Speaker Ouputs to the Dennon Amp? Is this still considered the same as Pre-Out? "

NO in no way is a speaker out the same as a pre-out. The signal coming from the speaker out has already been amplified to listening levels, meaning lots of power or lots of voltage. Hooking up the denon to the speaker-outs will blow your speakers AND most likely it would blow the circuitry in your denon. I am 99.9% sure on this, if I am wrong someone please chime is but im playing the conservative side and going with please dont.

Now I have a ?. Are your speaker out connections RCA jacks???Shouldnt be. please elaborate. maybe list your surround receiver and dennon amps model #'s.

Dave Milne

Geno is right. Speaker-outs are not the same. Aside from the hassle of having to make a custom cable (bare wires to RCA)... and the very real danger of damaging the input circuits of the Denon... this would defeat the idea of using a "better sounding" amp. You'd be getting all of the noise and distortion of the Sony plus whatever the Denon adds.

You really need the pre-out jacks.

Incidentally, I'm a bit surprised you are going straight from the DVD to the Denon. The Denon must have some sort of level control then, right? 'Not a common feature of basic power amps.

Yogi

If your recv doesnt have preouts then you can buy one of the speaker level to line level converters sold at partsexpress.com and that will enable you to hook up your Denon amp to the recv. Calibrate your system after that and you should be all set.

The truth is not out there but within you.

imported_Andrew Pratt

Except that the converters would likely lower the signal quality to the point this whole exercise is moot. I could be wrong but I doubt the PE converters would be that good.