Use of pre-outs and speaker terminals simultaneously

lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
Question came up elsewhere, as apparently some avr manuals warn against doing such for a given channel(s). If you did utilize both the pre-outs and the speaker terminals for the same channels for some reason, would the reason being advised against doing so be electrical in nature or just a warning that acoustically it is generally not a good idea?
 
slipperybidness

slipperybidness

Audioholic Warlord
Question came up elsewhere, as apparently some avr manuals warn against doing such for a given channel(s). If you did utilize both the pre-outs and the speaker terminals for the same channels for some reason, would the reason being advised against doing so be electrical in nature or just a warning that acoustically it is generally not a good idea?
I'm going to make a guess that it would be an electrical concern.

But, I would also assume that a pre-out would be going to an input with a "very high input impedance", so I really don't see the concern there either.

For a while, I had my main L/R driven off the normal speaker level binding post outputs, while my sub was connected to the main L/R pre-outs. It is quite a pain to make cable swaps on my system, so I used the existing L/R pre-out cables to hook up my sub when I first bought it, just as a stop-gap until I felt like pulling it all out to connect to the LFE.

I had absolutely no problems with that. Honestly, I don't think I even read the manual, I just did it and it worked fine for me on my Pio Elite.
 
WaynePflughaupt

WaynePflughaupt

Audioholic Samurai

Personally I’d like to see a link to a manual making this claim. There no reason why pre-amp outputs would have any effect on the receiver’s internal amplifiers.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
I'm going to make a guess that it would be an electrical concern.

But, I would also assume that a pre-out would be going to an input with a "very high input impedance", so I really don't see the concern there either.

For a while, I had my main L/R driven off the normal speaker level binding post outputs, while my sub was connected to the main L/R pre-outs. It is quite a pain to make cable swaps on my system, so I used the existing L/R pre-out cables to hook up my sub when I first bought it, just as a stop-gap until I felt like pulling it all out to connect to the LFE.

I had absolutely no problems with that. Honestly, I don't think I even read the manual, I just did it and it worked fine for me on my Pio Elite.
I looked thru my own manuals for three avrs with full sets of pre-outs and no such warnings. I've also read various forum posts where people have done just that with no issues....
Personally I’d like to see a link to a manual making this claim. There no reason why pre-amp outputs would have any effect on the receiver’s internal amplifiers.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt
The specific avr mentioned (and without specifying reason, just a warning not to apparently) was an HK247.
 
P

PENG

Audioholic Slumlord
I can't see it being an electrical concern. Even if the internal power amp's impedance is lower than normal, it makes no difference whether speakers are connected or not. It probably is just a reminder for people who have both connected, so that they wouldn't end up using both at the same time unintentionally.
 
mtrycrafts

mtrycrafts

Seriously, I have no life.
I can't see it being an electrical concern. Even if the internal power amp's impedance is lower than normal, it makes no difference whether speakers are connected or not. It probably is just a reminder for people who have both connected, so that they wouldn't end up using both at the same time unintentionally.
What if that pre out, another amp went to another set of speakers, say outdoors?
 
P

PENG

Audioholic Slumlord
What if that pre out, another amp went to another set of speakers, say outdoors?
What if that pre out, another amp went to another set of speakers, say outdoors?
What if that pre out, another amp went to another set of speakers, say outdoors?
That would be legit. As slippery mentioned before, assuming the amplifier has very high input impedance, say 50X or higher there won't be a problem. Even just 20X, the effect probably won't be audible to most people, but the higher the better.
 
highfigh

highfigh

Seriously, I have no life.
I would like to see how this was worded- might it be that the signal from the speaker terminals is delayed, slightly? I can't think of an electrical reason.
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
Thanks for the input. Other party who claimed to have seen this restriction in the HK247 manual hasn't responded and I couldn't find any such in the copy I downloaded. The timing difference makes some sense but if duplicating channels anyways, why worry ? :)
 
S

Scott Y.

Enthusiast
If you are using an external basic amp, you won’t have any way to adjust the volume of the two sets of speakers independently.

Otherwise, I don’t see any issues.
 

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