Need help with pre out to external amp (1 Viewer)

[jdsher]

Tomorrow they deliver my new Samsung 55" LCD, so I've been getting my media room ready for the delivery. Here's what I've got so far for my system:
Yamaha rx v863
PS3 for Blue Rays and DVDs
PSB Imagine C center
Thiel 3.6 (left overs from my audio system)
Audio Research D200 (also left over from my audio system)
Mirage sub
No rears as of right now. I thought I would start with a 3.1 and put some PSB Alpha Bs in the rear later.
Anyway, the problem I'm having is no sound to the Thiels. I have the Pre out front of the Yamaha connected by stereo audio cable to the unbalanced connectors for my D200 with the select switch on the back set to unbal. I've got the Thiels connected to the D200 with Bear Labs speaker cable. I plugged in my wife's XMP3 player in to the V=aux in the front of the Yamaha to see how everything sounds and all I get is sound through the center channel.
What am I missing here?

 

[JohnRice]

My first thought is to make certain you have the front pre-outs and not the L&R connections of the multi-channel input connected to the amp. I know that sounds really obvious, but there is so much stuff on the back of receivers these days it is easy to do. Just like connecting the sub to the multi-channel input rather then the sub output.

Just out of curiosity, does the D200 have unbalanced inputs? If it does, I'm not certain you are gaining anything using balanced if the entire connection isn't balanced.

Great speakers. The same ones I have had for over 15 years.

 

[jdsher]

I double and triple checked my connections and everything looked correct. The D200 has both balanced XLR and unbalanced RCA inputs. I normally use the XLR from my Classe preamp which definitely sound better if you're listening to music. I agree that it may not be that important with surround sound. I ended up connecting the Thiels directly to the Yamaha receiver this AM so I could be up and running when the TV gets here and I'll figure out the preout later.
Thanks
Jon

 

[JohnRice]

I can't think of any one place to start trouble shooting that is better than any other. Those Thiels will eat the Yamaha for lunch if you crank it up too much. Make sure they are set to "Small" so you at least are giving the amp a bit of a break with low frequencies.