Switch between amps


I regularly use an Ayre VX-5 Twenty stereo amp to drive KEF Reference 1s, but would like to be able to switch occasionally to a pair of Cary 572SE tube monoblocks.  I envision a box that has two pairs of speaker input connectors and a single output connector.  It would need to provide some sort of load for the amp not used.  In my case, an added complication is that the Ayre has provisions for bi-wiring whereas the Carys do not.  I doubt such switch is available, but I'm not sure.  An alternate path is to drive a pair of KEF LS50s with the Carys.

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Showing 2 responses by yyzsantabarbara

I was looking at doing the same thing and wanted to get a preamp that had dual outputs. There is a thread I created that discusses this. It turned out some preamps such as the Mola Mola Tambaqui, Wyred 4 Sound, Atmassphere and a host of others support this. I connected the manufacturers to see if it was OK to use the preamps this way.

You connect both amps to the preamp at the same time. You would turn the amp you want to use on and the one not required off. I was planning on have 2 sets of speakers in the same room.

In the end I decided to get the preamp with the best headphone section and not the dual outputs. The new plan is to manually flip the XLR’s from one amp the other when I want to hear a particular speaker.