Hi, If I connect the B speakers to my speaker switch and connect the front pre out to my power amp, can I run them together? Or I just have to choose one of them the I play the music?
I don't use other speakers output just the B and front pre out.
Thanks for helping.
Thanks for providing a model number. That makes it all quite clear about some of your options.
Still, it would be helpful to know what your specific usage is?
Do you run surround sound in your main 'A' zone?
What are the speakers and where are they in your 'B' zone?
Are you okay with the 'A' and 'B' zones playing at the same volume?
How many additional speakers do you want to connect to the preouts?
The Onkyo you have does have a set of preouts at fixed line level for the VCR. According to the manual, on page 28, it looks like the VCR out audio output connections can be set to any source you want and that they will work always.
This means you
can hook them up to a amplifier, then into a speaker selector to play audio in other zones of your home as you choose. This is actually a great usage of these connections and is something I would encourage if that's the goal of the system.
Page 26 of the same manual describes the functionality of the A-B speaker operation. If speaker A is the only one on, then it will playback audio using 5.1 surround sound. If you playback audio in the A&B mode, then it will rob the amplifier channels for the 'B' speakers. Leaving you with 2.1 audio in the 'A' zone and 2.0 stereo in the 'B' zone. This may be adequate, but that's up to you. In 'B' only mode, it is also just playing back 2.0 stereo in the 'B' zone.
This is older, but there is a lot of stuff out there which pre-dates HDMI, so this isn't really nearly as old like some stuff is.