Bi amping from a reciever (1 Viewer)

[BrentPollard]

Can you do this? I have a five channel Rotel RB-985 Mk I which at present I am using to bi amp a pair a PSB Silver fronts with the 5th channel powering my PSB C-6 center. My reciever(Which is a prologic and must be replaced as its lost the center channell) is used to power ther 2 surronds9PSB Alpha's) . So I was hoping to purchase a new reciever (Integra DTR 9.1 or Pioneer 49TX or such)and a Pair of PSB Mini's(which can be bi amped). Also the Silver's and Mini's are 4ohm.

Thanks

Brent

 

[BrentPollard]

Oops a typo, should not read 9PSB Alpha's disregard the 9.

Brent

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

Never quite figured out the question, Brent. Are you asking if you can power your Rotel from the new receiver, or bi-amp your front speakers from the new receiver... or bi-amp the rear speakers from the receiver...??

Regards,

Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[BrentPollard]

I apologize for the lack of clarity. At present I have my Rotel RB985 5 channel amp bi-amping a pair of PSB Silvers with the 5th channel powering my center. When I replace my receiver I would like to keep the Rotel as is and use the amps in the reciever to bi-amp my rear speakers. All my speakers are 4ohm.

Brent.

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

Brent,

Whether or not you can do this will depend on the receiver. If you’re using the Rotel for the left/right fronts, those amplifier channels in the receiver are available if there are input jacks for them.

The trick will be splitting the rear channels to two amplifiers. Theoretically you could send the rear pre-outs to the left/right main (amp) inputs, and then use the front channels to drive the rear speaker’s tweets or woofs.

However, with many receivers, any channel that has pre-outs only, you can’t use the pre-outs and the internal amps at the same time. If you plug a connector into the pre-out it (rightly) assumes you are using an outboard amp and shunts the signal to that amplifier channel.

You can easily test this by plugging in a cable to the rear outputs while it is playing a signal: If the rear speakers stop working, then the rear amps have been disabled.

Probably, Brent, you will have to have a receiver with pre-outs and main-ins for the front and rear channels. It’s easy to find receivers with pre-outs and main-ins for the front channels, but receivers with ins and outs on all channels are not very common.

You might want to post a question on the Hardware forum. Perhaps someone can recommend a receiver with ins and outs on all channels.

However, if you are able to find a suitable receiver, it is probably recommended that you use the front channel amps to drive the rear tweeters. It is very common in home theater receivers for the front channels to have higher-quality amplifier sections than the rear.

Regards,

Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[BrentPollard]

Thank you Wayne for the insight. I will keep this in mind when I go shopping. As I said it's not important but would be nice to be able to do it.

Brent