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2 amplifiers and 1 set of speakers

I had 1 cd, 1 cassette, 1 pair of speakers all hooked up to 4 amps. It's not complicated. All you need is the Niles speaker switcher and a couple of RCA component switches, and a bunch of cables.
 
Hawkeye 87 said:
What if I'm listening to a CD on the solid state Marantz and it sounds a little too bright and fatiguing............... There's a YouTube video addressing this same topic but the person in the video only desired to use one source with each receiver (he liked one receiver for surround sound movies and the other receiver just for 2 channel CD listening - that's solved with a simple speaker switch).
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The Marantz has tone controls or you could get a pair of more polite speakers or you could just use the Dynaco all the time. :)

A lot of people do something similar to the youtuber (me in TV room), there are even preamps that have HT bypass to integrate a 2 channel and surround system.
In my main system I swap out amplifiers from time to time and just move the speaker wires. :thumbsup:
 
Hawkeye 87 said:
But my amps do not have a pre out, they just have the standard aux, tape, phono, etc.
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The Marantz has a record out which is a fixed (2v?) line level out that should be able to provide a signal for the Dynaco.
The speaker switching can be done with a box in reverse (or so I understand; never tried it myself).
 
There are switch boxes on that auction site that allow you to switch between two amps and two sets of speakers in any combo. They run about 70 bucks.
 
I use this amp switcher from Amazon to switch between a tube amp and AV receiver powering a single pair of speakers. Works perfect and even has a dummy load to protect the tube amp if accidentally left on when switched to the other amp. Some may not be aware that a tube amp must "see" a speaker load when powered on or risk damage.

https://www.amazon.com/Amplifier-Re...ords=amplifier+switcher&qid=1636623627&sr=8-3

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Akustic said:
Guess it could be done with y-cables on the sources and one multi speaker box ..
Don't know if you can Y a turntable though .. not much drive there ..
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For the line-level sources the y-cables would indeed work. Whereas the turntable would rather have to be run through either a switch first (for using the integrated phono stages of the Marantz and the Dynaco) or through an external phono stage first - 'cause otherwise the cartridge would "see" both phono inputs (as well as the cabling to these) as parallel loads, so that the load parameters would be wrong). However, in case of the second opton the problem would be, that the SCA-35 would only appear to sport three line-level inputs (Radio, Spare & Tape). While routing all sources through the Marantz and then going from its recourd output into the Dynaco would work, but most likely require the former to be powered for the purpose - so not quite optimal, either.

And switching the speaker outputs might also not be the greatest idea, given that the Dynaco is a tube amp, that probably doesn't like to be run without a speaker load. So H_87 would probably always have to remember to turn the Dynaco off, before switching the speakers over to the Marantz.

Greetings from Munich!

Manfred / lini
 
lini said:
For the line-level sources the y-cables would indeed work. Whereas the turntable would rather have to be run through either a switch first (for using the integrated phono stages of the Marantz and the Dynaco) or through an external phono stage first - 'cause otherwise the cartridge would "see" both phono inputs (as well as the cabling to these) as parallel loads, so that the load parameters would be wrong). However, in case of the second opton the problem would be, that the SCA-35 would only appear to sport three line-level inputs (Radio, Spare & Tape). While routing all sources through the Marantz and then going from its recourd output into the Dynaco would work, but most likely require the former to be powered for the purpose - so not quite optimal, either.

And switching the speaker outputs might also not be the greatest idea, given that the Dynaco is a tube amp, that probably doesn't like to be run without a speaker load. So H_87 would probably always have to remember to turn the Dynaco off, before switching the speakers over to the Marantz.

Greetings from Munich!

Manfred / lini
Click to expand...

Didn't think of a switch for the turntable .. that's a good idea as long as the cartridge will tolerate it .. ..
Running the turntable into the Marantz and then running the Marantz into the Dynaco wouldn't give him the option of using the Dyna's phono stage but a switch would.
(If the Dyna has a phono stage)
I've heard of using a switch but never tried it ..
And it's handier than buying another phono stage when he already has two ..
 
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Hawkeye 87 said:
Hi everyone, I need your help in solving my problem. I have 2 integrated amps, a new Marantz PM 6007 and an old Dynaco SCA 35 tube amp. I have 1 pair of speakers. Right now I have everything hooked up to the Marantz: turntable, CD player, tuner and Bluetooth receiver. Question: is there a switch box or something that I can use that will allow me to switch between either amplifier while still being able to utilize all 4 sources mentioned above?? From what I've seen on YouTube videos and Amazon, there are speaker switch boxes that allow you to use 2 different amps, but you can only use a specific source off each amp, e.g. #1 amp has a CD player hooked up and #2 amp has a turntable hooked up. Is there some switch box available that will allow me to listen to the turntable on either one of those amps with a flick of a switch?
Click to expand...

Just use Y cables from the CD and the Bluetooth receiver into each amp..
Get a switch for the turntable and connect it to phono on each amp ..
Get a speaker selector and hook it up backwards for selecting amps instead of speakers ..

Keep the cables as short as possible especially on the turntable ..
Hunt around a little and see if you can find a switch box specifically for turntables ... capacitance of the switch is potentially an issue.for the cartridge..

But do make sure that the system is off when you choose which combination that you want to listen to ..
 
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In my system I use a DAC outputting hi-res to the tube amp via a 4k Fire Stick and HDMI extractor with no other sources. The AV receiver uses a Roku and blu ray player as sources. If I wanted to share the blu ray player with the tube amp ( which I don't ) an input source selector could be added. But using multiple sources and sharing them between two different amps would call for a complicated use of switch boxes and interconnects.

I used this Niles amp switcher for awhile but I don't think it has the circuity to protect a tube amp. It worked fine with the class d amp but only accepts 16 gauge bare speaker wire and I much prefer the convenience of banana plug connections with the newer switcher.

No matter what type switcher you use be prepared for a rat's nest of wiring.

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Standard setup for a non standard set up is,

One box to gather the sources, that goes to,
One box to distribute the sources to the amps, then,
One box to gather the amp outs for the speakers, that,
Goes to another impedance matching box if you want to switch between or run a batch of speakers.

These worked good for me. All break before make. No electronics inside. But phono's don't scale well and can be a problem.
P2220053.JPG P2220054.JPG P2220048.JPG

Then I got these from the dead audio store. They have no problems with anything, and do everything.
P2210005.JPG P2210006.JPG P2210007.JPG P2210008.JPG

They run this. And select any source, amp, or speaker at will.
P4180005.JPG P4180006.JPG
 
I bought a heavy duty 4PDT On-On 20A 120V Toggle switch ($5.95) to be able to switch between the speaker outputs from two separate systems. I mounted it in a standard exterior gray plastic switch box and mounted the switch on cover plate. Knockout holes in the box make it easy to run the speaker wires into it.
Pretty sure Parts Express sells something similar. The box and switch plate are available at local hardware, electrical or big box stores.

Larry
 
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