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Powered Amp to Powered Speakers?

gatesofsteel

gatesofsteel

New Member
Hi, yes this is an idiot question for most of you...but I would really love a straight answer that is better than what Google provides. Can I safely connect a powered amp (vintage) to a powered speaker (new) and get away with it?

I would like to connect my McIntosh MA6200 to a Klipsch powered speaker if it is possible, because it is the new Klipsch powered wireless/bluetooth, etc. This speaker would only represent one of my zones, as I have passive speakers already for the other zones.

The reason I want to do this:

-The new Klipsch are small, and they look and sound great in the space
-The new Klipsch allow for a wider variety of uses
-My main house system is set up through the Mac, so I would love to be able to have them all play nicely together if possible

I don't want to blow anything up. I like to play most of my music as either digital (Spotify through a wireless speaker or modem/bridge) or vinyl (through an old restored Pioneer TT that I love).

Obe Wan, any help or advice would be greatly appreciated. May fathers tell sons of your glory.
 
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Does the Klipsch powered speaker have speaker terminals? Is it designed to be used as such? Pics and the model number would help. But, at first blush I'd say no!
 
You most likely cannot use a powered amp with a pair of powered speakers--the caveats being, if the receiver/amp has pre-outs, you can connect the powered speakers to that pre-out. There are also what they call Z-matching transformers (Carver built them back in the 80's--probably others, as well) that basically takes speaker level signal and converts it to line-level, which is what you need to feed the powered speakers. I don't recommend it, because I feel that they degrade sound quality, but might work for you, depending on how clean you want things to sound. You already mentioned BluTooth, so right there is a huge hit to sound quality anyways, but that is another issue.
 
I see two easy options.

It looks like your integrated amp has preamp outputs. You can get a pair of Y-cables to jumper your Preamp Out to your Main In and then connect the line level to your powered speakers with standard RCA interconnects. This way you can control the volume of your powered speakers by adjusting the volume on your integrated amp.

Alternatively, you could connect the line level inputs of your powered speakers to your Tape Output on the amp. Doing this, though, will mean you can only adjust the volume of the powered speakers with the powered speakers. Potentially, the signal to the powered speakers would be cleaner (less noisy) because it would be at a higher level than your preamp output, which varies with volume level.
 
Why would powered speakers need a second amp?is it possible it’s almost like bi amping??
Your better off getting a passive pair if you want to do this . Sorry
Adding amps to a home theater set up makes more sense . Added headroom, what are you using these speakers for?? Anyways
 
You can run your powered speakers from any source (CD player, FM tuner, Turntable with RIAA phono preamp). DO not run powered speakers with the speaker outputs of another amp...........

Here is a suggestion. Get a passive preamp that merely switches between sources and has a volume control.

I believe that Shiit audio has a rather nice one that is not very costly. Problem solved.

http://www.schiit.com/products/sys
 
WaynerN said:
You can run your powered speakers from any source (CD player, FM tuner, Turntable with RIAA phono preamp). DO not run powered speakers with the speaker outputs of another amp...........

Here is a suggestion. Get a passive preamp that merely switches between sources and has a volume control.

I believe that Shiit audio has a rather nice one that is not very costly. Problem solved.

http://www.schiit.com/products/sys
Click to expand...
Ahh didn’t know you could run powered speakers on a surround receiver I passed on a. Nice pair of jbl R.I.P.
 
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