Is this Possible????




Okay.....tell me if there's something wrong with this idea....

I have a Denon HT receiver that can function as a preamp. I take a 5 channel Rotel 1095 and let THREE of the channels run the mains and center home theater speakers. Then I let the receiver handle the two rears on it's own. NOW...the two unused channels of the Rotel go to a Rogue Metis pre-amp for running a pair of Revel M22's when I want to go for two channel music above and beyond the HT system. Is there any reason I can't split up duties for the Rotel in this manner, between 3 channels to HT processing and 2 channels to a pre-amp and better speakers?

Thanks

R.
robbob
As long as the 2-channel chain is Metis to Rotel to Revels, that should work fine... :^)
If you are running a pair of speakers for your HT mains, and an ENTIRELY different pair for your 2 channel yes you are fine using the 2 left over channels on the Rotel as a stand alone system with separate preamp and speakers. Of course this means your other 3 channels will be powered at all times and still physically hooked to your other 3 speakers, you can turn off the denon to kill any noise as that is the control pre for those other 3 speakers, but you will still have 3 other speakers getting signal at silence while using your 2 channel system and if you left the denon on while the metis is running you could get essentially noise or crosstalk, but not likely.

The real question here is do you plan to use the same sources? Meaning your DVD, or whatever running thru the metis and the denon? Because this will pose an issue, unless your just planning to use a cheap RCA splitter or your going to run your CD / DVD player with the digital out to your DENON processor which I recommend, and use the analog Jacks of the DVD player to feed your Metis. This of course depends on the sound quality much more of the DVD or cd source being shared. Of course if your doing Vinyl or Dac, or music server this will vary of optimal setup for you, without knowing what you are ultimately trying to do or share any sources at all nobody can make a recommendation.

In any case if you are trying to share several sources at once, you are better off getting a preamp with a true HT pass thru connection, not sure if the metis has this, maybe its an option to install, or if it has it than this is the way to do this all together if running multiple shared sources between the denon and metis.

The one other small risk at this is having two preamps into one amp could up the odd's that you get a ground loop hum, if you don't already with just one hooked up. And if there is a ground loop it will not necessarily go to silence even if you do shut off the preamp not in use. This will take on a whole other set of rules to eliminate.

Good Luck
Thanks for the comments!

I plan to use a Playstation 3 for the source in the home theater setup. I have a modded Oppo player as the source for the tube preamp. I used to have a expensive tube CD player, but found the 350 dollar Oppo was always better. I was running Maggie 1.6's at the time.

The main thing is that I have a good sized theater room. The theater speakers are great, but I'd like to keep Revel M22's at the ready for dedicated 2 channel listening. I want this to happen WITHOUT buying a second amp, if possible.

Thanks again for the comments!

Rob
You should be fine then, again the only possible issue is developing a ground loop causing a hum or hiss in excess having 2 separate grounded preamps into one amplifier on the circuit, this will also depend on the house AC circuits you are using being shared on on separate ones. If you have no issue, you have no issue, but it is a possibility.