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Help setting up HT and Integrated Amp and Sub

Hi, all...
I have a bit of a hodge-podge system that I am trying to get set up and am having a brain-cramp determining the best way to wire things here...let me give a summary of the journey thus far:
- I live in a tiny little apartment, so my ancient full-range floor standing Polks do not fit, nor does much of anything
- Had a nice little home theater setup featuring Cambridge SoundWorks surround speakers and sub hooked up to a Yamaha RX-A700 HT receiver. Not bad, but I decided to get a little more audiophile as the quality was just meh.
- Bought a set of Harbeth P3ESRs and, wow, they are pretty fantastic...the sub became more important and so I replaced that with an SVS SB-2000.
So now I had the P3ESR, SVS sub and 3 Cambridge speakers (center and surround) driven by the Yamaha...not bad, but not great.
- SACD player (old Pioneer) died, replaced with Oppo BDP-103
- Got a Teac DAC to hook my Mac up to the stereo system
- Felt the P3s were underdriven, so got an Emotiva MiniX (pre-out from receiver into it onto the Harbeths)...sounded much better, surround and movies was bad though, so got 3 Cambridge Minx21s (very blah, but a bit better than the old ones) and left them hooked to the receiver...as is the sub
This was fine for a little bit, but I felt the receiver was really holding me back, so looked at integrated amps...tried a Musical Fidelity 3.5, but it doesn't like my power (even with a conditioner!), so gave it to my brother. Found a good deal on an Exposure 2010s2d and am where I am now:
- I want to connect the Oppo, the Teac DAC and the HT receiver to the Exposure, driving the Harbeths for quality stereo sound and leave the 3 other speakers connected to the HT receiver....but where do I connect the sub? If I connect it to the Exposure for use in music listening, I lose it from the HT setup so movies will suffer (as will the occasional surround disc I play). If I connect it directly to the Oppo, I need to play with the settings constantly and I lose sound level control (i.e. when I turn up the amp/receiver, it won't get louder too).
I did buy a fairly good quality RCA Y connector thinking I could run from both the integrated amp and receiver, but it introduced a pronounced hum, which I am assuming is a ground loop somewhere...

At this point I am getting all confused and it is annoying, as it is a feeling I am not used to. Anyone have any ideas on the best way to connect all this? I mean...I want pure audio through the integrated amp, with the ability to watch movies and play surround content through the receiver...
Thanks in advance!
Os.
osmodious
erikt
268 posts
 

It could be your previous attempt to hook both the AVR and Int amp to the sub failed (eg the hum) might be because the Exposure doesn't have a true HT Bypass.  Meaning its HT input is really a unity gain connection that still passes thru the preamp which would result in the pre-outs being active at the same time as your AVR subwoofer connection.

So the switch approach is probably your best bet.

I have a MF A5 int amp with an HT Direct connection which when selected completely bypasses the preamp section of the A5 so that it only functions as a power amp.  Therefore no signal is outputted from the preout L/R connections.

This allows me to hook up my sub to both the AVR subwoofer output and the L/R preouts from the Int Amp.  No hum, no switches - works perfectly.

If I'm listening to music, source devices are connected directly the A5 and the AVR is off.  The sub gets full range from the A5 preouts and I use the sub xover, phase, and volume.

If I'm watching movies thru the AVR, I select the HT Direct input on the A5, the preamp gets bypasses, no signal from the A5 preouts, and the sub gets the LFE signal from the AVR and its bass management settings.

osmodious OP
8 posts
 
The hum was actually from the MF A3.5...fairly certain it didn't like my power as I tried it at my parents' house and...no hum. Then again, I did not have the sub/receiver/etc there so that may be it as well. I'm now almost certain that the switch is necessary...both inputs to the sub would probably always be active as they would both be coming ultimately from the Oppo. I have the Oppo connected to the HT receiver via HDMI, and to the integrated via LF and RF out and Sub out (now that I consider that, probably should have connected the sub to the A3.5, too...but I don't recall seeing a sub in/out). Come to think of it, part of the hum situation could be the spaghetti-nest of wires behind all this stuff.

In any event, I have bowed to the seemingly inevitable and ordered a switch. This weekend I am going to go through and re-cable everything and purge what is unnecessary then plug the switch into the combo when it arrives. If I have a chance, I'll also try wiring it up without a switch and pared down to just the one input into each: receiver and integrated.
I'll report my results...
osmodious OP
8 posts
 
Just verified...MF A3.5 does NOT have separate Subwoofer connections, just a Pre-out, which is how I had connected the sub (ran the Oppo in 2-channel mode, connecting LF/RF to the MF A3.5...so pre-out was passing full signal to sub, which has built-in filter which I had set to 80Hz). It all should have been able to work using just the Y connector to the sub, assuming I kept the HT receiver off when playing the Oppo in 2-channel mode...if not for that hum and the pain of having to switch modes in the Oppo all the time. Eh, we'll see what happens with the switch...
erikt
268 posts
 

If you could figure out the hum issue with the A3.5, that would be, imho, the cleanest solution.

I also have an Oppo player: hdmi connected to my AVR, and L&R analog outputs connected to my Musical Fidelity A5 int amp for CD inputs.

HDMI w/ AVR selected for movies: the A5 amps my front speakers and the sub is controlled from the AVR.  For music, AVR is off, Oppo drives the A5 CD input, A5 preouts drive the sub for clean rocking music goodness.

If you'd like to see diagrams I've done up that show the connections in my system, I can post links here.

It all works slick and clean, no cable swapping, no switch boxes, no hum.

osmodious OP
8 posts
 
That would be fantastic, thanks!
Ideally, that would be my preference for install, as the idea of the switch is really bothering me for some reason...not to mention I'm lazy and don't want to get up off my fat butt to switch from AVR to Integrated (granted, would only have to for the sub, but still).
So you have both the AVR and your A5 connected to your sub...does it have more than the one set of inputs, or did you use a Y connector? I guess the diagram will show it...
Thanks, again!
Os.
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