amp to avr

[martin a johnson]

i have a Denon AVR-X1300W that I tried to connect to my Crown XLS-1002. The Denon comes with minimal pre-outs. One zone 2 left/right pre-out and one 1 and 2 subwoofer pre-out. I used the first pre-out mentioned and connected the RCA's to the Crown RCA's, and nothing. I tried adjusting all sorts of things on the Denon to no avail. The Denon worked with the speakers hooked up to it, but when switched to the Crown with the pre-out hooked up, nothing. Does anyone have any suggestions?

 

[lovinthehd]

Were you using a source that had restrictions for zone 2? You made sure zone 2 was turned on? Used the gain adjustments on the Crown to no avail? Not a good way to use an external amp, better to get an avr with at least L/R pre-outs on the main zone....or better yet, a full set (starts with the X3xxx series avrs).

 

[martin a johnson]

When you say using a source with zone 2 restrictions what do you mean?

 

[martin a johnson]

I knew i had to get an AVR with pre-outs and I knew this model had them. It was not until today when I received the unit that I noticed the pre-outs were zone 2 only, no main zone pre-outs. I did check the zone 2 adjustments on the Denon and the Crown levels are fine, just no sound at all.

 

[lovinthehd]

When you say using a source with zone 2 restrictions what do you mean?

Not all digital sources play thru zones due digital rights management concerns....are you using an analog source for zone 2? That should work, but something via hdmi may not....

 

[lovinthehd]

I knew i had to get an AVR with pre-outs and I knew this model had them. It was not until today when I received the unit that I noticed the pre-outs were zone 2 only, no main zone pre-outs. I did check the zone 2 adjustments on the Denon and the Crown levels are fine, just no sound at all.

Generally that means a full set of pre-outs on the mains....altho there are a couple avrs that provide main pre-outs just for L/R channels....like the Marantz slimlines.

 

[martin a johnson]

I had my TV, which I have my laptop connected to, hooked up to the Denon via RCA's. That did not seem to be working, so I connected my TV to the Denon via optical cable. I read something related to what you said on your last post. I don't know, I'm thinking about sending the Denon back and cutting what will be some serious losses. I thought this would be straight forward. I just bought a pair of Cerwin Vega XLS 215's at a considerable discount (almost half off) and I knew I need some sort of power to run them, but i am on a budget. I bought the crown for power and the Denon for sound processing and in case I wanted to add some more home theater speakers later on down the road. The CV's are just being used as main front speakers. They sound pretty decent with the Crown alone, but I definitely like at least bass and treble controls, which is , again, why I got the AVR.

 

[lovinthehd]

I had my TV, which I have my laptop connected to, hooked up to the Denon via RCA's. That did not seem to be working, so I connected my TV to the Denon via optical cable. I read something related to what you said on your last post. I don't know, I'm thinking about sending the Denon back and cutting what will be some serious losses. I thought this would be straight forward. I just bought a pair of Cerwin Vega XLS 215's at a considerable discount (almost half off) and I knew I need some sort of power to run them, but i am on a budget. I bought the crown for power and the Denon for sound processing and in case I wanted to add some more home theater speakers later on down the road. The CV's are just being used as main front speakers. They sound pretty decent with the Crown alone, but I definitely like at least bass and treble controls, which is , again, why I got the AVR.

The CV XLS215s are relatively sensitive (claimed 95.3dB @8 ohms @ 1 meter which isn't really all that helpful as to what they mean by that, as usually it would be expressed as 2.83V/1m which is 1 watt for 8 ohm) so you might be fine with just an avr depending on your distance from the speakers and spl goals but you'll have to expand on your use. Have you tried an spl calculator to estimate your needs?