Hooking Amp to Amp

[bboock]

Hello all,

I have a 7 speaker plus two sub system running on my receiver. I just bought a pool table and it is going in the room next to my living room. I was curious if I could hook a Yamaha reciever with two speakers running off of it, into my onkyo receiver and run all of the speakers at once, with one audio source (music mainly)? Or I didn't know if I could get a 4 channel amp and plug my two rear speakers into it, and the two speakers in the pool room into it, and play all 9 speakers and two subs off of my receiver. This may not even make sense, but for some reason I cannot get my mind wrapped around how this can work. Thanks for everything in advance!

 

[Adam]

You can indeed hook up your Yamaha receiver to the Onkyo, provided that it has some sort of audio output that is compatible with an audio input on the Yamaha. Sometimes you can't output an analog signal if you are using a digital source and/or vice versa (if I'm remembering correctly).

Some questions:

• Which Onkyo receiver do you have?
• Which Yamaha receiver do you have?
• What source(s) do you want to use when you play music through all of the speakers?
• Do you want the speakers by your pool table to play the same sound as the front main speakers in your living room, or something else?

 

[bboock]

Onk 605 (I know I know, going to upgrade soon. Just hard to find a 7 channel with good output and no HDMI switching or any of the video stuff at a decent price)
Yamaha RX-396
My computer will be the mains source of music
And yes same sound (music) in pool room and in my living room. I want to have 9 speakers and two subs going while shooting pool.

 

[Adam]

How is your computer hooked up to the Onkyo?

 

[bboock]

Single cable going from my mic. output on computer to aux input on onk.

 

[Adam]

Single cable going from my mic. output on computer to aux input on onk.

So, a stereo analog connection, I'm assuming (3.5mm minijack to two RCAs).

You have a few options, three of which I'll list below:

1. Connect the Yamaha to the Onkyo. You would run an RCA interconnect from one of the audio outputs on the Onkyo to an available audio input on the Yamaha. The Zone 2 line out on the Onkyo should work just fine (but the volume in the pool room is affected by the Onkyo volume setting, so you'd likely have to turn the volume on the Yamaha way up). With this connection, you could listen to any of the analog sources connected to the Onkyo in your pool room, but you'll need the Onkyo to be on.
2. Connect the computer directly to the Yamaha. Use a y-splitter at the computer, run a cable to the Onkyo like you have, and run a similar cable to the Yamaha. With this connection, you can run audio from the computer to the Yamaha without having the Onkyo on. This wouldn't let you listen to any other sources from the Onkyo in the pool room, though.
3. Do both of the above - run a connection from both the computer and the Onkyo to the Yamaha. Best of both worlds, but you'll be running two cables to the pool room. You'd want to be careful and not play the audio from the computer directly when you already had the volume on the Yamaha cranked up after listening to something being fed from the Onkyo.

 

[Adam]

I made a few edits to the post above after putting it up.

Also, if you were to use the VCR audio outputs on the Onkyo, I don't believe that the signal going to the Yamaha would be affected by the volume control on the Onkyo. It's just a matter of how you want everything to operate.

 

[AVRat]

Is this the Digital or Analog L/R inputs? If analog, then you can run out of the Tape or Zone 2 Outputs to an analog input of the Yamaha.

Adam beat me to it!