I had a similar experience. I have a home theater system consisting of PSB speakers and a Yamaha 5.1 amp. I wanted to use a Cambridge A300 integrated to just run the mains. I could not, and still can not figure out a way to use both of the amps at the same time without turning up volume on both of them as the movies played. I ended up going to Radio Shack and buying a switch box for just the mains. As some of you pointed out, a mistake will eventually be made. I'm just lucky that the protection circuits in BOTH amps were up to the task and kicked out when I had both amps connected together at the same time. I like the idea of using bannana plugs and NEVER having the amps connected together.
An odd idea
Got a question for all of you . . . .
I've been battling with the problem of optimizing 2-channel performance without compromising the coherence of my HT setup. I only have one room which is usuable for A/V gear, and it's loaded to the gills with speakers for HT.
I'd like to upgrade my amplification for 2-channel, but don't want to have to buy SEVEN channels of "good stuff," since that's a healthy chunk of cash and I'm happy with the HT performance of my Rotel gear.
So here's the question -- anybody ever tried hooking up one set of speakers to two different amplifiers? I'm thinking of a modified shotgun biwire cable, run backwards -- single end to the speaker, split ends to two different amps. Obviously you'd have to make sure you NEVER had both of the amps turned on at the same time . . . .
It seems to me that this would be preferable to using a switcher box, because that would put an additional "thing" in the signal path, where the split speaker cables would not.
Of course, my understanding of electronics would fit into a Vibrapod, so there might very well be a screamingly obvious reason why this would be a disaster in the making . . . .
Would this work? If it did, it would allow the use of completely different amps for 2-channel and HT without having to worry about the interaction of one with another, same for preamps.
I'd really appreciate any feedback anyone had here . . . .
Thanks!
Pat
I've been battling with the problem of optimizing 2-channel performance without compromising the coherence of my HT setup. I only have one room which is usuable for A/V gear, and it's loaded to the gills with speakers for HT.
I'd like to upgrade my amplification for 2-channel, but don't want to have to buy SEVEN channels of "good stuff," since that's a healthy chunk of cash and I'm happy with the HT performance of my Rotel gear.
So here's the question -- anybody ever tried hooking up one set of speakers to two different amplifiers? I'm thinking of a modified shotgun biwire cable, run backwards -- single end to the speaker, split ends to two different amps. Obviously you'd have to make sure you NEVER had both of the amps turned on at the same time . . . .
It seems to me that this would be preferable to using a switcher box, because that would put an additional "thing" in the signal path, where the split speaker cables would not.
Of course, my understanding of electronics would fit into a Vibrapod, so there might very well be a screamingly obvious reason why this would be a disaster in the making . . . .
Would this work? If it did, it would allow the use of completely different amps for 2-channel and HT without having to worry about the interaction of one with another, same for preamps.
I'd really appreciate any feedback anyone had here . . . .
Thanks!
Pat