Hooking up system, need some guidence (1 Viewer)

[deckerone]

OK I have a bunch of equipment I want to hook up and need the get this right:
NAD T753 reciever
NAD CI 9060 Amp (6 chanels)
Polk Audio RTi A7 speakers
Polk Sub
I need to know how to and where to connect all these items together.
Next question is should I be looking at a music sourece like sonos and forget the CD player and the satelite radio?
Comments please.

 

[Robert_J]

CDs will sound much better than a compressed digital format like Sonos or satellite radio can deliver. I use XM, Pandora and streaming audio for the convenience and not the quality.

 

[David Willow]

General rule. The better your speakers the worse compressed music will sound. Good speakers will reveal all the imperfections that crappy speakers and headphones hide.

Basic connections go something like this:

Connect the pre-outs on the receiver to your amp for all speakers but the subwoofer. Connect the pre-out for the sub directly to the sub (it has its own amp). Connect the speakers to the amp. Be sure to connect the correct speaker to the correct amp (pre-out to lf goes to amp with lf speaker connected and so on).

 

[Al.Anderson]

You usually don't connect a receiver to an amp, and I don't see a reason to do it in this case as the power output is about the same in both case and those speakers are not hard to drive. It would be better to use the quality amp for another system.

 

[Martino]

If you want to hook up your system as seperates:
- Use RCA cables from the pre-out on your receiver to the channel inputs on your amplifier...considering that you have a 7 channel receiver and a 6 channel amp - I would recommend using the external amp on 5 of the channels, and use your receiver on the 2 back surround channels if you have them. The original post never said how many channels you are trying to setup....
- Run a longer single RCA cable from the Sub W1 output on the reveiver to the sub input on your sub...(otherwise known as a sub cable)
- After getting the signal to the external amp - you use speaker wire to hook up the back of the amp to your 5 main speakers.
Adding a picutre I created using the manuals for both the receiver and the amp:

You will also want to run a "trigger" cable from the back of the receiver to the amp - this will turn the amp on/off when the receiver is powered on/off. It is a simple mono line cable that can be found cheap at radio shack...Connect the +12 V TRIGGER OUT on the reciver to the 12 V TRIGGER IN on the amp..
You don't have to spend a ton on these cables...around $10 if ordered below....
Good luck with your setup....
RCA Interconnect Cables - Keep them short if possible:
3 ft - 3ft Coaxial Audio/Video RCA Cable - $0.97 each X 5 = $4.85
http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=102&cp_id=10236&cs_id=1023601&p_id=2743&seq=1&format=2
Sub Cable:
15ft Coaxial Audio/Video RCA Cable - $2.24
http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=102&cp_id=10236&cs_id=1023601&p_id=6304&seq=1&format=2#description
Trigger Cable:
-- A mono cable will work here, but this one will be fine...
6ft 3.5mm Stereo Plug - $0.85
http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=102&cp_id=10218&cs_id=1021802&p_id=644&seq=1&format=2
Total cost: $7.94

 

[deckerone]

Man you must know me, PICTURES thats just awesome. Thank you so much for this, for some reason its all bloody greek to me but you have provided me with the exact info I needed.

 

[deckerone]

But I a looking to add a cd player and god forbid a turntable to this set up so then I think we are on to something, or so you still think the amp is not needed? I have it therefore thought I should loop it in.

 

[Martino]

you still think the amp is not needed?

You can spend the $10.00 for the cables and give it a try....if you don't like the results, the cost is fairly low....if it does not work out, you can either use the amp in another system or sell it and use the money for your CD or turntable.
I ran a similar setup with a receiver and an external amp for a while, then upgraded the receiver to a pre/pro unit. Now using the receiver as a bedroom second system. When I added the external amp I noticed an improvement with the entire system - but I went from an 80W channel receiver internal amp to a 125 W channel external amp.

 

[Al.Anderson]

The receiver is 70w, the amp is 80w. And that's the more conservative "continuous power" NAD reports on. I think it's insane to waste such a good amp chained like that for absolutely no reason. In addition to being all but useless, it wastes electricity and adds complexity. If it weren't a NAD receiver I would rationalize it, or maybe if the speakers were hard to drive; but not here.
I say try it without, and if you don't like it *then* spend the money on cables and experiment. Otherwise use the amp in a different room, or sell it, or keep it as a spare.

 

[deckerone]

I completly agree with everyones comments about not putting the amp in the sequence, so now I need to know how to hook up just the reciever, so far I am not getting sound and think I am not hooking the speakers up correctly. There are 4 inputs on the Polk RTiA7, although they appear bridged I am just not getting anything, not a hiss, nothing so I have it wrong. Please help.

 

[deckerone]

So I am now getting sound but no control, it comes on pretty loud but I can not adjust it?

 

[Martino]

So I am now getting sound but no control, it comes on pretty loud but I can not adjust it?

So - you are using the receiver - and hooked up your speakers - but the volume knob on the receiver does nothing?
It sounds like your receiver is having some kind of issue, and needs to go in for repair. There is nothing I can think of in a setup issue that would bypass the volume control...