Best way to wire one preamp to two power amps?
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z-adamson
Addicted Member
petehall347
the brandy coffee man
y cable will work if you dont mind sharing input power to power amps . might be they will be happy and you will be happy . these things can be worked out by knowing the equipment involved and expectations at the speakers .
the skipper
Professional Curmudgeon
A "Y" splitter will work fine for sending the output of a preamp to two power amps?.
Where did this second preamp come from?
Freds.Bands
Live Music Listener
I don't like this; technically this introduces some distortion from the tape out buffer stage. But using the Y-splitter consider the total load on the preamp
xero-D-hero
Super Member
Just get a preamp with two sets of preouts...
Heck my NAD 106's (own two of 'em) have 3 sets of preouts,1 pr. balanced XLR & 2 pr. of unbalanced RCA,and all can be used simutaneously.
FWIW
Bret P.
Heck my NAD 106's (own two of 'em) have 3 sets of preouts,1 pr. balanced XLR & 2 pr. of unbalanced RCA,and all can be used simutaneously.
FWIW
Bret P.
the skipper
Professional Curmudgeon
Assuming both power amps are the same they will both get the same signal.
z-adamson
Addicted Member
I don't have the other preamp yet
Trying to decide if getting a second preamp is a better route than the Y splitter.
chodad
Well-Known Member
IMHO I'd use 2 preamps and split the signal at the source.
z-adamson
Addicted Member
The amps in question.....hafler dh220. They have an input impedance of 47000ohms. The preamp in question......hk725. Not sure what their output impedance is, but it would have to be pretty high for it to be a problem with the input impedance of the dh220..........right?
z-adamson
Addicted Member
Those outs are all just wired in parallel internally, right??
If so, same thing as Y cables.
restorer-john
Addicted Member
It will be fine.
Just bear in mind however, both amps must be turned on. If one is turned off, you can get distortion from the unbiased front end asymmetrically distorting the waveform.
Just bear in mind however, both amps must be turned on. If one is turned off, you can get distortion from the unbiased front end asymmetrically distorting the waveform.
z-adamson
Addicted Member
On another similar note....
Would it likewise be fine in your opinion to use the OUT of an active crossover to feed signal to the IN of two power amps via a Y splitter cable?
Same basic thing, right?
restorer-john
Addicted Member
Yep.
noobydoo
Active Member
What if the 2 amps are not identical. In my case both amps have similar output but I'm not sure about the input voltage? One amp has no input controls, the other does. I leave the input controls on the one that has them at 9/10. No problems so far. Fingers crossed. If someone here thinks this is a bad idea please let me know and tell my why. Cheers.
Not an issue.
Y-splitter is perfectly fine for the OP's situation; I would also scrap the idea for another preamplifier.
FWIW - I've never heard any difference in sonic quality regardless whether either amplifier is switched on or off when using Y connectors.
Greetings,I have a 1240 nad pre amp and 2150 & 7150 nad.just got the 7150 and would like to try to use it to drive one channel and the power amp for the other channel.The 1240 has 2 pre outs.How would I do this?Please be specific about the connections as I am somewhat hi-fi dumb.Also have a Velodyne sub with line in and line out connections which are currently hooked to the power amp via speaker wire with speaker wire then out to two speakers.Thank you
My Carver pre is powering a Belles with one output and an 800watt pro amp with the other, absolutely no issues whether one or both are powered up, and no need for the amps to be identical.
WaynerN
Addicted Member
Some preamps have 2 sets of outputs (like my AVA preamps) and they are "Y'd" internally. I run 2 different amps from one preamp in this fashion with zero problem. However, it might be nice if one of the amps has a volume control level to balance the outputs, but I'm not sure I know what you are doing....If you are bi-amping then yes.
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