System to system


I am fairly new to high end stuff and am still kingda in the learning curve stage.
I have a Cary tube preamp and amp that runs through a set of Harbeth HL5 speakers. I also have a large Sansui G9000 solid state that has been all recapped and brought up to todays standards. I'd like to run the Sansui in my rack as a secondary system to utilize the tuner and power a Sony transport and Lite DAC that are also in the rack. Can I run speaker leads to my Harbeth speakers and hook them up to the binding posts that also are hooked up to my Cary system without causing any damage or feedback? I would never run the systems at the same time.
markus1299
Not a good idea to hook your speakers up in parallel to two amplifier outputs. That one amp is off will not negate the difference in impedance caused by this setup. What you are trying to do, I assume, is have the capability of driving your speakers with either one amp or the other. A solution may be to make or buy an "A B" switch box. Make sure the switching is 'break before make' and the contact resistance is spec'd very low - a few milliohms. This will allow you to do what you want to do without affecting your system in a negative manner. And don't flip the switch with power on to either amplifier.
Yes, you can!
I'm not sure about tube amp but you can do this with two SS amps connecting speaker between +outputs of both amps and shorting -outs (grounds) together. Since this is a little similar to bridging amps (but no phase reversal) amps have to be bridgeable (single ended outputs)and have similar power ratings. Both amps have to be on and the speaker will receive difference of both outputs. You can even play both at the same time. I've never tried this (strange application) but don't see any reason why it wouldn't work. Unpowered amp can get damaged but it's the same with two monoblocks bridged for more power. On the other hand it's always better to keep things standard and avoid experimentation.
No, you can't. The reason is that you will have the amp's output impedance in parallel with your speaker AND the other amp's output impedance. This will cause too many issues to be useful.

I assume your Sansui has crappy wire jacks for the speaker leads. If you can adapt them to bananas and use banana terminations on your speaker cables, it will be easy to just swap amps when necessary.

Look to see if your Sansui has pre-out jacks so you can just run it to your Cary preamp and have the tuner that way. Some receivers had pre-outs and others didn't so you have to check. This would be the cleanest (assuming your Cary has two extra inputs for both the tuner and Sony/Lite).

Arthur
No, the unpowered/not used amp would load down the powered amp and depending on the circuit could actually damage it.