My guess would be that one of the two pairs of Cary amps inverts phase but the other does not. So when you run the two pairs of external amps, the two pairs of speakers are running out of phase relative to each other (i.e., the cones of one pair are moving out while the cones of the other pair are moving in). That would produce the partial bass cancellation and apparent lack of power that you describe.
To fix that, you would have to reverse the plus and minus (red and black) connections to the left and right speakers of ONE of the two pairs of speakers.
Hope that helps,
-- Al
To fix that, you would have to reverse the plus and minus (red and black) connections to the left and right speakers of ONE of the two pairs of speakers.
Hope that helps,
-- Al