can 2 systems connected to the same speakers cause damage? (1 Viewer)

[david_shy]

Hi all

I currently have 2 systems - a Stereo pre/power amp for music , and a multi-channel AV Receiver for DVD

my speakers have 2 sets of terminals for bi-wiring/ amping


If I were to connect the Stereo Amp to one set of speaker terminals, and the AV Receiver to the other set (jumpers connected), could this damage the amps and/or speakers?

Obviously only one system would be playing at at any one time...Would one amp have to always be powered off while the other was playing?

 

[Benihana]

you "could" do it that way, as I did, but eventually your gonna turn one on without turning the other one off by accident, and your gonna damage something like it did :frowning:. my receiver and amplifier blew, had to send them in for a replacement. What you are basically doing is hooking up the 1 amp to another amp via the speaker terminals, they are gonna send each other electrical signals, which will damage something. However, if you are careful everytime and switch one amp off before you turn on the other one, it will work out. This is why they say have 2 different systems for HT, music.

 

[John Garcia]

I would not risk the damage. Swapping the speaker cables is the only way to make sure you don't kill one or both of your amps.

 

[JohnSmith]

As the two previous posters said, it'll blow the amps.

If the AV amp has pre-outs, and the stereo integrated amp has direct gain in, why not connect it up from pre-out to the hifi amp? Quite a few do this to get better hifi sound from CD's, yet keeping the AV amp for DD/DTS decoding.

Use the stereo amp to power the L/R speakers. The L/R amp channels on the av amp will be unused.