Anyone savy on home stereo?

[Schrade]

I bought a second receiver to be able to push 3 sets of speakers - not for true 'SurroundSound' however.

Now I'm wondering about using the new amp solo, or using the second [older] amp on one of the new amp's output channels, to push the 3rd set of speakers, like either of the below configurations here...

New amp only:

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-ggUhywn2x9Q/Ust-wZN7W8I/AAAAAAAADV0/7zfaB5UOnOk/s880/ST_CFG_A.jpg

OR, using the old amp additionally, 'in series':

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-MOpbgKuAIYA/Ust_AuGqq6I/AAAAAAAADWA/gOVjn2lbbfI/s880/ST_CFG_B.jpg

[Franke]

Schrade, you don't want to feed the speaker output directly into the 2nd amp input. There is an impedance mismatch as well as too much voltage (power) from amp 1. You will get distortion and possibly damage the amps. The input to most home amps are looking for a very low level signal (millivolts) - not high power as what comes from the speaker terminals. You would have to get an amp with speaker level inputs for amp 2 as what is sometimes done in car audio. I don't know of any adapters for this home application.

[scottfab]

What does the whole back panel of the first amp look like?
Got a "leveled" signal out? or maybe a sub-woofer out?

What I do in a couple of rooms in the house is to run a separate
stand alone amp into a very large sub-woofer (or two). Then I
use a very low pass filter to only let 40Hz and below through.
Makes for REAL theater sound in the action scenes. I run about
3KW total on 4th of July and New Years.
I have to be able to hear it outside :-D

In any event I would not amp up the rear surround. That would introduce
a phase change and delay. Even with a leveled output, it may be louder but you'd loose depth and directional differentiation.

[scottfab]

Just did a quick look and found it.
Bingo. You have sub out.
Look at your current sub.
Does it have an out?
(hopefully just a splitter out)
Then hook up the 2nd amp there and pick up an unamplified
sub. You can never have enough sub volume on some movies ;)
Hopefully you have understanding neighbors.
http://i.i.cbsi.com/cnwk.1d/i/tim2/2013/07/12/Sony_STR-DN840_35734383_09.jpg

[Schrade]

Yep - that's it there Scott...

And it turns out that the SONY will push all 3 sets of speakers, even NOT in Surround mode. I was wondering about it's capability.

And this f&*cker rattles the house, all the way to the other end of the house!!! 1050 watts, 150w/channel. Volume pegs @ '73'; @ 40, the storm windows rattle. And I mean RATTLE. The Cerwin-Vega's and the Mitsubishi's carry BASS, and the Bose's do that, and crisp clear mid- + high's.

Franke - you're right on the speaker output to second amp; even tho' the SONY has discrete channel output control, no channel would go to 'minimum', while the other 2 channels are pegged volume.

Only using a Tape Deck [record] output would work, going to a second amp. Tried that, using the Teac as primary, feeding the CV's off channel 'A', and Tape Output to the SONY. But the Teac is only 110 watts/channel; SONY is 150!!! CV's (and Bose's) are diggin' that. Mitsu's like 270 watts, but they're happy @ 150. And so is Schrade http://www.freesmileys.org/smileys/smiley-fc/yes.gif