An odd idea


Got a question for all of you . . . .

I've been battling with the problem of optimizing 2-channel performance without compromising the coherence of my HT setup. I only have one room which is usuable for A/V gear, and it's loaded to the gills with speakers for HT.

I'd like to upgrade my amplification for 2-channel, but don't want to have to buy SEVEN channels of "good stuff," since that's a healthy chunk of cash and I'm happy with the HT performance of my Rotel gear.

So here's the question -- anybody ever tried hooking up one set of speakers to two different amplifiers? I'm thinking of a modified shotgun biwire cable, run backwards -- single end to the speaker, split ends to two different amps. Obviously you'd have to make sure you NEVER had both of the amps turned on at the same time . . . .

It seems to me that this would be preferable to using a switcher box, because that would put an additional "thing" in the signal path, where the split speaker cables would not.

Of course, my understanding of electronics would fit into a Vibrapod, so there might very well be a screamingly obvious reason why this would be a disaster in the making . . . .

Would this work? If it did, it would allow the use of completely different amps for 2-channel and HT without having to worry about the interaction of one with another, same for preamps.

I'd really appreciate any feedback anyone had here . . . .

Thanks!

Pat
tsrart
You could also just use speaker cables with banana plugs, and then just manually switch the cables at the speaker to change between amps.
Sugarbrie --

That was my second choice idea . . . . you don't think I'd eventually cause wear damage to the speaker terminals through the repeated plugging and unplugging?
Putting a better amp on your main speakers will not hurt your movie sound at all,it will make it better. I have done it. Your speakers are a good match for each other so it will sound fine.
If you run the output of one amp into the output of another amp your going to smoke the amp even if it is off. Had a friend that had the same idea as you using a Rotel 6 channel amp and an aragon 8008bb. As soon as he turn on the aragon amp (the rotel was off) the rotel went up in smoke. Cost over $300.00 to repair the rotel. Best thing to do is to have two sets of speaker cables and just reach behind the speakers and swap cables.
I had the same problem that you did. I run Infinity IRS V on the front, IRS betas for surrounds and an IRS Gamma on the center. I use different amps for the front and back. The difference is sound field is VERY negligible. I could make the sound totally seamless either by upgrading all my speakers to IRS V and better amps, which isn't something I can afford, or I can downgrade my mains to equal the quality of my surrounds, which is also something I am not willing to do.

Any system that plays a large percentage of music would do well to upgrade the mains at the expense of the other channels.