Two amps into one pair of speakers


This is a newb question, but my friend has two integrated amps hooked up to his speakers, one McIntosh and a Prima Luna. One is connected with banana plugs and the other with spades. He said this will cause no problems as long as they are not both sending signal at the same time. Is this true. It just seems a little strange to me.

TaterMike

mfinch

Showing 1 response by mirolab

BAD idea!!   The output impedance of a power amp is a fraction of an ohm, so do you really want to connect both of your amps to nearly a dead short?  Depending on the amp design, when a modern amp is turned off, it likely has a protection relay that disconnects the speakers from the amp output.   BUT if you have an older amp, or maybe an inexpensive amp without a relay, then the output transistors are connected whether it is on or off.  It really depends on the design.  

And mistakes happen... what if you accidentally turn both amps on?  

Simply a bad, bad idea!!