Seperate amp for front 2 channels ?

[mafrost]

Apologies if this is a stupid question, but I'm planning my move from stereo to multichannel and don't fully understand the setup details as yet.

I'm looking at getting a Yamaha RX-V3900 which has pre-outs for all the channels and I've currently got a Musical Fidelity pre-power combo running as my stereo setup.

Is it possible to use my MF power amp to drive the front 2 (main) speakers by using the pre-out on the AV receiver and still drive the rest of the surrounds from the Yamaha receiver terminals speaker terminals ? Or is it once you've connected anything to any of the pre-outs you can't then use the rest of the amplifier section of the receiver to drive other speakers ?

Many thanks to anyone who can answer this for me.

 

[Gerrardasnails]

mafrost:
Apologies if this is a stupid question, but I'm planning my move from stereo to multichannel and don't fully understand the setup details as yet.

I'm looking at getting a Yamaha RX-V3900 which has pre-outs for all the channels and I've currently got a Musical Fidelity pre-power combo running as my stereo setup.

Is it possible to use my MF power amp to drive the front 2 (main) speakers by using the pre-out on the AV receiver and still drive the rest of the surrounds from the Yamaha receiver terminals speaker terminals ? Or is it once you've connected anything to any of the pre-outs you can't then use the rest of the amplifier section of the receiver to drive other speakers ?

Many thanks to anyone who can answer this for me.

Right this has been done many times before - I was one of the main culprits!

You can connect all your speakers apart from your front two to your receiver. You connect your front two to your pre amp as normal and connect that to your power amp as normal. Then you connect your receiver from the pre out front left and right to your stereo amp (any spare in like AUX will do). You then need to turn your stereo amp up to say 12 o'clock and run a calibration on your receiver. Once this has been done when listening to 5.1 you need both receiver and MF amps on and when listening to music just your MF amps.

 

[Xanderzdad]

That should wprk perfectly. I am using the same idea to feed my Denon 2808 AV amp from pre outs into my Musical Fidelity A3.2 amp. It gives the best of both worlds then and all the surround functions work perfectly. It keeps the stereo sound quality whilst allowing the use of the same front speakers for both stereo and surround sources.

 

[Anonymous]

Would this work? I have a Yamaha RXV 3800 at 140 watts per channel and Rotel power amp 130 watts per channel, i'd like to connect as you suggest using my Rotel stereo amp, would the 10 watts per channel make a difference? So fronts will be fed 130 watts and rest of speakers 140 watts.

I'm i correct in saying that the CD player should be connected to the stereo amp?

Eventually i will have my stereo system and cinema system in seperate rooms. Busy saving for set of speakers for stereo system.

 

[Gerrardasnails]

Charl:
Would this work? I have a Yamaha RXV 3800 at 140 watts per channel and Rotel power amp 130 watts per channel, i'd like to connect as you suggest using my Rotel stereo amp, would the 10 watts per channel make a difference? So fronts will be fed 130 watts and rest of speakers 140 watts.

I'm i correct in saying that the CD player should be connected to the stereo amp?

Eventually i will have my stereo system and cinema system in seperate rooms. Busy saving for set of speakers for stereo system.

Yes it will work. My stereo amp is 120w per channel and my AV is 100 - it makes no difference. Your fronts will be only be connected to your stereo amp and that to your power amp. When you have your receiver on, it takes over and you turn the volume up on that.

 

[mafrost]

Gerrardasnails. FIrstly, thanks for replying to my initial question. Much appreciated.

One last question from me...

Does it matter what volume setting you set your stereo amp to (you suggested 12 o'clock (which would be very loud on my MF amps) ?

Does the AV Reciever simply reset the sound levels (of the signal pre-out to the stereo amps) when you run the initial auto-setup ?

Thanks again for this.

 

[Gerrardasnails]

mafrost:
Gerrardasnails. FIrstly, thanks for replying to my initial question. Much appreciated.

One last question from me...

Does it matter what volume setting you set your stereo amp to (you suggested 12 o'clock (which would be very loud on my MF amps) ?

Does the AV Reciever simply reset the sound levels (of the signal pre-out to the stereo amps) when you run the initial auto-setup ?

Thanks again for this.

Your MF amps won't be powering the speakers at 12 o'clock but no it doesn't matter what level it's just 12 o'clock is memorable and you will need to have it on that each time so that the speakers are in sync like they were when you calibrated them.

My stereo amp has a fixed level input so that when I switch to AV (which is the one that's connected to my receiver), I can't change the volume level on the amp.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks Gerrardsnails. So i will connect frrom av amp to stereo amp and from stereo amp to power amp and from power amp to speakers?

What you mean with calibrating the speakers? My speaker levels are already set up with av amp.

 

[Gerrardasnails]

Charl:
Thanks Gerrardsnails. So i will connect frrom av amp to stereo amp and from stereo amp to power amp and from power amp to speakers?

What you mean with calibrating the speakers? My speaker levels are already set up with av amp.

Yep, that sounds about right.

If you have an auto calibrating system, once you have set the level you are going to have your stereo amp at, you run the auto calibration so that the receiver adjust all the channels to levels that work with the front two. For instance if you had your power amp level set at 8 o'clock, the rest of your speakers will need to be set to a lower level than if you had the power amp set to 12 o'clock. It saves playing around with your speaker settings each time you listen to 5.1.

 

[Anonymous]

Gerrard, i finally hooked up my strereo system to the av receiver as suggested. The volume level is something that's still bothering me. When listening to music my stereo amp is at 8 o'clock position but when watching movies i need to turn stereo amp to 12 o'clock position to get sound from my front speakers. How will the auto calibration on my av receiver help sort this out, it seems that my levels would have to be very high to make it work or does the av receiver turn the other speaker levels down to be line with fronts and then i just have to turn the volume up higher on the av receiver? I'm scared that i might forget to turn stereo amp down after watching movies and select to play cd and at 12 o'clock position it will be VERY loud!

 

[Gerrardasnails]

Charl:Gerrard, i finally hooked up my strereo system to the av receiver as suggested. The volume level is something that's still bothering me. When listening to music my stereo amp is at 8 o'clock position but when watching movies i need to turn stereo amp to 12 o'clock position to get sound from my front speakers. How will the auto calibration on my av receiver help sort this out, it seems that my levels would have to be very high to make it work or does the av receiver turn the other speaker levels down to be line with fronts and then i just have to turn the volume up higher on the av receiver? I'm scared that i might forget to turn stereo amp down after watching movies and select to play cd and at 12 o'clock position it will be VERY loud!

This is probably the only issue with this set up and one that I don't need to worry about as my stereo amp has a "fixed input" setting. This allows me to set my AV input and once it's fixed, you cannot turn it up or down. Have a check to see if you can do that with the Rotel first.

What cables are you using to connect your receiver to your amp? I would suggest some decent ones as I found that it made a difference to the levels.

When you run the calibration, all your speakers will have their own volume level set by the receiver. Your fronts will be set by the receiver, after calibration, and the volume you have the stereo amp will have a bearing on it. You could try it manually before doing the calibration to see how loud you can get the fronts to sound with your amp at say 10 o'clock.

 

[Gerrardasnails]

Charl:Gerrard, i finally hooked up my strereo system to the av receiver as suggested. The volume level is something that's still bothering me. When listening to music my stereo amp is at 8 o'clock position but when watching movies i need to turn stereo amp to 12 o'clock position to get sound from my front speakers. How will the auto calibration on my av receiver help sort this out, it seems that my levels would have to be very high to make it work or does the av receiver turn the other speaker levels down to be line with fronts and then i just have to turn the volume up higher on the av receiver? I'm scared that i might forget to turn stereo amp down after watching movies and select to play cd and at 12 o'clock position it will be VERY loud!

Sorry, I should have added, yes the receiver will integrate the other speakers levels and you do control the volume with just the receiver.

 

[Anonymous]

The Rotel doesn't have "fixed input"

I'm using "QED Audio 2" cables. I normally adjust levels manually but i'd have to try auto calibration. Will let you know how it turns out.

 

[Gerrardasnails]

Charl:
The Rotel doesn't have "fixed input"

I'm using "QED Audio 2" cables. I normally adjust levels manually but i'd have to try auto calibration. Will let you know how it turns out.

Definitely worth doing the auto and tweaking from there. I'd be interested to hear how you got on.

 

[Anonymous]

Hi Gerrard,

I set stereo amp volume to 8 o'clock (average listening volume when using stereo system) and ran auto set up and got some strange results, speakers were out of sync when watching a movie, bass way up and front channel way to loud. I ran it again and got different results, speakers out of phase and level error. Maybe something wrong with the mic? I didn't want to mess around to much coz i've traded the 3800 in for the 3900. i will try again when the 3900 arrives. I reset my levels and speaker sizes but kept the EQ of the auto set up and turned power amp back to 12 o'clock position.

Cheers

 

[Gerrardasnails]

Charl:
Hi Gerrard,

I set stereo amp volume to 8 o'clock (average listening volume when using stereo system) and ran auto set up and got some strange results, speakers were out of sync when watching a movie, bass way up and front channel way to loud. I ran it again and got different results, speakers out of phase and level error. Maybe something wrong with the mic? I didn't want to mess around to much coz i've traded the 3800 in for the 3900. i will try again when the 3900 arrives. I reset my levels and speaker sizes but kept the EQ of the auto set up and turned power amp back to 12 o'clock position.

Cheers

If you are getting two very different readings straight after each other, the mic must be dodgy. FYI, I listen to music at around 10 O'clock but I have the stereo amp set to about 2 O'clock when setting up my system.

 

[Anonymous]

Maybe i'm doing it the wrong way round then? i set my stereo amp lower when setting up to avoid stereo amp volume being to high when changing over to listen to CD's.

 

[Anonymous]

My two pennys worth

I did this some ago using a rotel 1072 i think, it works beautifully but its a right pain in the ar£e, not so much for me but the rest of the family the missi got more than a few dirty looks from me after putting on a cd and not turning the amp down and doing nasty things to my my speakers. I would only bother myself again if i had a stereo amp with unity gain

 

[Anonymous]

Fortunately i'm the only one that operates my system, my family doesn't dare touch. The threat of divorce seems to have helped.

I hear what you saying, it is a bit of a pain but it will have to do till i buy stereo speakers and add on additional rooms for AV and Hi Fi kit.

 

[Gerrardasnails]

Charl:
Fortunately i'm the only one that operates my system, my family doesn't dare touch. The threat of divorce seems to have helped.

I hear what you saying, it is a bit of a pain but it will have to do till i buy stereo speakers and add on additional rooms for AV and Hi Fi kit.

I can imagine that being a pain - I was lucky, I planned to do what we are doing without checking the spec of my stereo amp and then found out that it has fixed level inputs! So much easier. Gareth, another reason to buy the 840A!!

 

[Anonymous]

I would have already got one(840a) but its making room in the rack as its pretty full at the moment and thiers nothing that i can bring myself to part with at the moment to make room.