RX-2080A AVR and Emotiva Basx A5 Amplifier setup question[s]

[scalier_toast]

I recently moved to new house and it is equipped with following set of 8 ohm built-in speakers.

* 7 speakers in the family room
* 2 speakers in the roomA (has physical volume control knob in the room)
* 2 speakers in the roomB (has physical volume control knob in the room)
* 4 outdoor speakers

I have RX-2080A AVR and Emotiva Basx A5 power amplifier. I was planning to connect my system as described below but then someone suggested that it is not possible to use pre-outs and speaker output at the same time. So now I'm confused and hoping experts here can confirm if my setup would work or not.

RX-2080A has following connectors of interest.
* 11 speaker outputs: Front L&R, Center, Surround L&R, Surround back L&R, Extra SP1 L&R, Extra SP2 L&R. Extra Speaker can be configured as Zone2 or Zone or Presence speaker.
* 7 Pre-outs: Front, Center, Surround, Surround back, Subwoofer, Zone 2, Zone 3.
* 2 Trigger outs.

Emotiva Basx A5 has following connectors of interest.
* Trigger in
* 5 RCA inputs
* 5 pair of speaker outputs

My plan was to create two zones, indoor and outdoor, to keep things simple.

Connect family room speakers to Front L&R, Center, Surround L&R and Surround back L&R and assign to indoor zone.
Connect outdoor speakers to Extra SP1, Extra SP2 and assign to outdoor zone.
Connect AVR trigger-out to Basx trigger-in.

Option-1:
Connect Front Pre-outs to Basx Ch1/Ch2 and connect corresponding speaker outputs to roomA speakers.
Connect Surround Pre-outs to Basx Ch1/Ch2 and connect corresponding speaker outputs to roomB speakers.

Option-2:
Connect Front Pre-outs to Basx Ch1/Ch2. And then connect corresponding speaker outputs to roomA and roomB speakers via serial wiring.

I was leaning towards option-1, will this work?

Is there a better connectivity topology, e.g. use basx amplifier for family room speakers via pre-outs and use AVR speaker output for roomA and roomB?

 

[TLS Guy]

I recently moved to new house and it is equipped with following set of 8 ohm built-in speakers.

* 7 speakers in the family room
* 2 speakers in the roomA (has physical volume control knob in the room)
* 2 speakers in the roomB (has physical volume control knob in the room)
* 4 outdoor speakers

I have RX-2080A AVR and Emotiva Basx A5 power amplifier. I was planning to connect my system as described below but then someone suggested that it is not possible to use pre-outs and speaker output at the same time. So now I'm confused and hoping experts here can confirm if my setup would work or not.

RX-2080A has following connectors of interest.
* 11 speaker outputs: Front L&R, Center, Surround L&R, Surround back L&R, Extra SP1 L&R, Extra SP2 L&R. Extra Speaker can be configured as Zone2 or Zone or Presence speaker.
* 7 Pre-outs: Front, Center, Surround, Surround back, Subwoofer, Zone 2, Zone 3.
* 2 Trigger outs.

Emotiva Basx A5 has following connectors of interest.
* Trigger in
* 5 RCA inputs
* 5 pair of speaker outputs

My plan was to create two zones, indoor and outdoor, to keep things simple.

Connect family room speakers to Front L&R, Center, Surround L&R and Surround back L&R and assign to indoor zone.
Connect outdoor speakers to Extra SP1, Extra SP2 and assign to outdoor zone.
Connect AVR trigger-out to Basx trigger-in.

Option-1:
Connect Front Pre-outs to Basx Ch1/Ch2 and connect corresponding speaker outputs to roomA speakers.
Connect Surround Pre-outs to Basx Ch1/Ch2 and connect corresponding speaker outputs to roomB speakers.

Option-2:
Connect Front Pre-outs to Basx Ch1/Ch2. And then connect corresponding speaker outputs to roomA and roomB speakers via serial wiring.

I was leaning towards option-1, will this work?

Is there a better connectivity topology, e.g. use basx amplifier for family room speakers via pre-outs and use AVR speaker output for roomA and roomB?

It will work but be inconvenient as the volume control will work both rooms.

You need to use zone 2 for room B.

Your serial wiring plan is an absolute non starter. DO NOT do that.

 

[j_garcia]

Yes, the speaker level outputs and preouts will work at the same time, whoever said they won't isn't helpful. ALont with what TLS said, not only will the volume control only work for both at the same time, Room A and B will always be playing the same thing if you connect it this way.

 

[scalier_toast]

Thanks TLS, Garcia. Yes I’m aware that roomA and roomB will play the same thing as family room but I don’t think I have any use of a different audio in those rooms. So I’m planning to turn off volume on those rooms by physical knobs and turn them on only when there is a party in the house.

 

[TLS Guy]

Thanks TLS, Garcia. Yes I’m aware that roomA and roomB will play the same thing as family room but I don’t think I have any use of a different audio in those rooms. So I’m planning to turn off volume on those rooms by physical knobs and turn them on only when there is a party in the house.

It's still a terrible idea.

 

[Trebdp83]

With the RX-A2080, you can have a Main Zone, Zone 2 and Zone 3 with the following amp assign using an external amp for the front speakers.

 

[scalier_toast]

It's still a terrible idea.

Can you please elaborate why? Terrible from usability perspective or technical standpoint?

 

[scalier_toast]

With the RX-A2080, you can have a Main Zone, Zone 2 and Zone 3 with the following amp assign using an external amp for the front speakers.
View attachment 65619
View attachment 65620

Right but I don’t want to buy another amplifier or AVR right now. So this was the best solution which allows me to drive 15 speakers (11 indoors and 4 outdoors) with RX-2080A and basx A5.

Open to other ideas with the same hw setup and still able to drive 15 speakers.

 

[Trebdp83]

You have the amps. What you do not have is the ability to configure them as needed here. The amp assign I posted was about the best you can do with what you have here. The Basx A5 is meant to power the main five channels of a pre pro or receiver. You need a multi room amplifier connected to your Zone 2 pre out to send the same Zone 2 signal to several rooms at once or separately. Hopefully, @BMXTRIX will step in with some suggestions.

 

[BMXTRIX]

I don't really have a lot of input here. The main L/R amp channels in the receiver are locked to those channels, so if you don't use them, then they can't be repurposed for other rooms. So, you can certainly run the zone 2 speakers off the amplifier, connected to the zone 2 preouts, or you can run zone 2 as the 'extra speakers 1' output off the AVR if you would like. Either one is fine and should work. I would lean towards trying it out this way first. The run the outdoor speakers as zone 3 and take the preouts to your external amplifier and run the outdoor speakers off outputs 3&4 of the external amp. Run the main speakers off outputs 1&2 of the external amp.

You can always adjust things as you need to, and you can add a extra amp in the future if you want to. I wouldn't blast music in the indoor zone, but you will have plenty of volume for general music background listening at reasonable levels. Outdoor can likely get solidly loud.

In the AVR you can setup zone 2 for fixed audio level output. So, that way the ONLY way you adjust volume is at the volume controls. At least, that's been my experience with zone 2 or zone 3 setups. The volume can be fixed or variable. If you have volume controls, set it to fixed, if you don't have volume controls, set it to variable.

Don't try to get to fancy with the AVR. You only have 9 total channels of amplification in it, despite the 11 connection points, so you will need to use at least a couple of external channels to get things working right.