What's a pre-out on a receiver? (1 Viewer)

[Don Black]

I just read that the bedroom receiver I just bought doesn't have a pre-out. What does that mean and why is is bad? Thanks!

 

[Jon Torres]

i think it just means you can't add on an external amp to power your speakers.

 

[NickSo]

Yeah, sometimes you may want to upgrade your system in the future, and say add a better amplifire than the one currently in your reciever... Without a pre-out, you would not be able to do that...

 

[Colin Dunn]

A pre-out jack is used to connect an external power amplifier to the receiver, rather than using the built-in amps of the receiver.

It is different than a line-level jack in that the receiver's pre-amp functions are applied to the signal (things like volume, bass/treble/EQ, etc.). Ordinarily, the line-level output jacks (like tape monitor out) don't do any processing to the signal, just passing it through directly.

I think the signal level of a pre-out jack is higher than line-level, so as to drive the power amp sufficiently.

 

[Don Black]

Ah... Thanks guys. I'm not at the "separate" stage yet so it looks like I'm safe.

 

[Seth Paxton]

I think one use of pre-outs people were doing was using the pre-outs of the rear L/R going to a 2nd Pro-Logic receiver to dematrix the rear stereo on a DD EX signal and create the rear center from the L/R.

Rather clever if you upgraded and still have that old receiver around.

 

[MichaelGomez]

I have a question about that. I have a Sony str-DA555ES receiver that has pre-outs. How do I use this to get more than the standard 5.1 and DTS? Any thorough explaination would be grately appreciated.

Mike

 

[Rob Dawn]

Michael,

Run cables from the Left & Right surround pre-outs on your Sony to the main inputs on a Dolby Pro-Logic receiver.

Then run your Left, Right & Center Surround speakers off the Dolby Pro-Logic receiver (instead of the Sony) and, voila, you have 6.1!

Remember that you won't have DTS-ES (a discrete 6.1 format) with this set-up though. What you'll be able to do is decode the soundtracks that have a surround back channel matrixed in to the left & right rear surrounds. (Like The Phantom Menace, if I'm not mistaken.)

Rob

 

[Seth Paxton]

Yeah, DD EX is matrixed, but DTS ES is not.

And of course matching volume levels can get trickier with this too.