2. amps-preamps
  3. 195314-188853

Driving speakers in more than one room

Hello, I am trying to set things up so that I can have independent volume control for a pair of in-wall speakers in a room that's separate from my main listening area.
 

With my current set up, I have a Home Theater receiver that I just use for watching movies, and a stereo integrated amplifier that I have all of my 2-channel sources connected to.  The integrated amp has a bypass so I can use my main speakers for both stereo listening and for the Front L/R channels when watching movies.

For the in-wall speakers in the other room, I have them connected to a secondary integrated amp, and I have the fixed line out of my main integrated amp going to the secondary integrated.  I figured this would be a great solution, but I'm getting distortion issues when I have the secondary integrated in 'standby' and just want to listen in the main room.  Apparently when the secondary integrated amp is in standby the analog inputs are probably put in some kind of state where they are affecting the signal at the main integrated amp (via the fixed line out).

I could control the in-wall speakers using zone 2 on the HT receiver, but then I'd have to use the HT receiver for connecting my 2-channel audio sources and I was trying to avoid that.

What would be a good solution for being able to independently control the volume of the in-wall speaker in the other room if I want to keep my -channel sources connected to the integrated amp (and not to the HT receiver)?

 

Thank you,
Greg

rhythm5

Showing 2 responses by rhythm5

rhythm5 OP
21 posts
 

Ken,

My primary integrated is a Musical Fidlity M5si and the secondary is an NAD 316BEE (original version).  The connection between the two is Fixed Line Out from the MF into any of the analog input pairs on the NAD. 

Cable is a WBC Mogami 2964, just a few feet long.

I'm thinking that maybe when the NAD is in standby it might be shorting, or nearly shorting, its inputs.  Which would then be doing the same thing to the Fixed line out on the MF. 

Other discussions I've seen on this topic seem to indicate that connecting a fixed line out to an input on another unit will sometimes work and other times not, depending on how the input and output circuits are designed on the two integrated amps/receivers involved.

I supposed I could just turn on the NAD even if I don't want to listen in the other room, since standby mode seems to be causing the issue.

Greg

rhythm5 OP
21 posts
 

Yes, exactly.  

Everything is fine if I turn the NAD on.  Right now it’s difficult to reach the back of the NAD to be able to turn it fully off, but I’ll be moving my cabinet out from the wall this weekend so I’ll do it then.

I have a feeling it’s related to the state the inputs are put in when it’s on standby. 

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