Using my Sony DA5400es pre amps

[psurquhart]

Hi,

Cant find my manual - so just a quick ish question.

Thinking of using my av amps pre amp option to get a new 2 channel amp in the quest for better 2 channel sound.

Was thinking of going down the DAC route - Rega perhaps ? Would this be the better bet or should I go out and buy a dedicated music amp and use my Sonys pre amp set up ?

If i do go down the pre amp route does my amp have a HT by-pass ?

Any advice or thoughts most welcome.

Cheers.

 

[psurquhart]

Any help for the un-educated appreciated.

 

[The_Lhc]

If you're going to buy a stereo amp you generally plug all the music sources into that, rather than using the av amp as a pre-amp. Similarly it's the stereo amp that requires the HT bypass.

 

[psurquhart]

If you're going to buy a stereo amp you generally plug all the music sources into that, rather than using the av amp as a pre-amp. Similarly it's the stereo amp that requires the HT bypass.

Thanks for the reply.

However, its obvious from my lack of knowledge here that I could do with more advice.

Can either yourself or someone else give me a quick lesson in exactly what I should be doing here to help me some more please ?

 

[Patrick Riggs]

This might help hopefully- I have a Marantz SR4001 which has pre out connections at the back. I bought a Cambridge Audio 740A amp on eBay and then connected the two together by running QED Performance Audio 2 RCA cables from the right and left of the right and left connections on the Marantz (front speakers)to one of the inputs on the Cambridge Audio. I connected the front speakers to the stereo amp, ditto my CD player. So now I have the amp for stereo and for surround sound, the Marantz controls the overall volume with the Cambridge powering the forward speakers. It sounds great!

Re a DAC, you might want to try what I have done - I have a Cambridge Audio 740C CD player which has two digital inputs so I use it to upsample my Oppo 980-H (for stereo signals- multi-channel SACDs, DVD-A's and DVD-videos go through the HDMI in the Marantz) and iPod via an Onyko ND-S1, which produces excellent results....

 

[Big Chris]

Best thing to do is.

1. Connect all your music sources to the 2 channel amp (CD, Tuner, MP3 dock, etc, etc). Leaving the DVD/BD, set top box, PS3/Xbox all connected to your A/V receiver as per.

2. Run a regular pair of interconnects from the A/V receiver's multi-outs (you're only using the 'front right' & 'front left' pair of course), to an appropriate input on the stereo amp, most likely 'A/V' or 'Aux'. If your amp has a HT bypass facility on any of the inputs, use this. This bypasses the stereo amps own volume control/pre-amp.

3. Run the front stereo speakers straight from the stereo amp, leaving all the other speakers connected to the A/V amp.

4. Double check all connections. When you're happy everything's not gonna go boom, turn at all on and run your A/V amp's auto set-up. If your stereo amp doesn't have a HT bypass, then you'll need put the volume control of the stereo amp at an easily rememberable(?) position. Most people use 12 O'clock, or if your stereo amp has a numerical volume display, something like '50' or '100'. Just don't forget if you use a very high volume setting to reposition the volume before listening to any of your music sources!

I think that's everything. I'm sure that other will chime in with anything I've missed.