I'm buying a plasma TV. Can I use my speakers?

You are better off connecting the line outs to your pre. Even if your plasma had speaker level outputs (i.e., you use the amps inside the plasma), there are some issues with connecting two sets of amps to the same speaker.

Why not run it though yer pre?

Connecting the speakers directly to the plasma will definaly yield crappy results

I guess you could always get a speaker selector and just use it backwards. Connect the speakers to the input on the selector and connect the plasma to the B input and the pre to the A Input.

As to how much it would affect performance? Well, yer speakers wont sound too good with the plasma's little amps, and when listening to music you just have another piece of gear in the way of the signal, could definatly degrade sound quality there as well

If you just connect the plasma and tha amp both to the speaker, yer definatly gonna hurt yer plasma's amps, and quite possible yer main amp as well.

Think of it like this, if yer runnin 100WPC to the speaker, and there is another set of wires going out to the PLASMA, yer basically feeding 100W of power to the OUTPUTs on the plasma's crappy little amp, and will probably destroy it.

Why can you not just run analog connects from the plasma to the pre? It wouldnt damage anything, you would have WAY better sonics all the way around, and everything will once again be Zen.

Honestly, if it were me, i would run analog outs from the plasma to the Pre. I wouldnt even try any other method, cause plasma's arent cheap, neither are good speakers. it is not worth the risk.

Run the analogs or dont try to integrate it at all in my opinion.

If it is worth doing, it is worth doing right, and with the dollar value of this equipment, i wouldnt get too squirrley and try to rig it, or you might find yerself with a bunch of broken gear

I guess there must be 'source selector' just like speaker selector, but it's another gear in the way which is possible signal degradation.

The reason I am asking this is becuase like you guys said, the Plasma has little built in amp that connects directly to matching external speakers, and they usually don't come free, cost extra around $100-300/pr.

However, I already have much better set of speakers that I want to make use of it.

For everyday TV watching such as news, sitcom, etc... I don't really need the best sound, and want the simplicity of not involving other gears:pre/pre & amp, etc. and just turn on the TV and go. For the movies and main sporting events, I would make use of the line out from the TV to the pre/pro.

I guess I'll maybe just spend extra couple of hundreds and get those matching speakers for everyday TV watching.

So on my wall, I'll have the plasma with matching speakers as well as my main speakers.

Well, It's actually same setup with my regular TV connected to the pre/pro.

Just checking if there's better way and I can get away with not buying the mathing speakers...

Or would I want to turn on my pre/pro + amp everytime I watch TV...

Come on guy! That is LAZY!
Serious!

you make a rug look hyper!

-just kiddin buddy :)

Also, you need to deal with multiple, at least 2(TV and Pre/Pre) remote controls which my wife wouldn't like at all...

Well I have some thoughts on this....

I agree with what is said above; the splitter idea is not a good one. Also, using a pre/pro is the best way to do business.

Your plasma has a wattage for the amp at about 16 watts. Check it. Interestingly, you could drive the sat 5s with this, as their requirement is very low. BUT- since sound quality is less of a concern, an even more efficient choice and less expensive is a set of Klipsch RB-15s or RB-25s. Do I think these speakers are great for audio? Nope. Would they be fine for listening to TV? Sure. Could your plasma amp drive them? Yes.

But whatever you do, do NOT do that splitter thing you were mentioning. You are asking for some fiscally painful trouble, or a loss of functional use of part of your system.