pre-out splitting

drmolitor

Hi. I'm putting together an admittedly makeshift/budget multi-room system and am wondering how many times I can split the pre-out line from a Marantz PM7001. I want to leave the Marantz dedicated to the living room and then run one line to an old receiver for the dining room and kitchen and another to another old reciever in the bedroom. However, I'd also like to run a sub in the living room off the pre-out as well. Is this too many splits? What's the best way to even do this? Y-adapters off the right and left and then another set off each of those?
Thanks

ohskigod

from what I have heard, the signal from a pre out is such a low voltage that splitting it has little to no effect. no have I dont that many splits? no, but I'm pretty sure your not going to break anything

organ

I've tried using a single Y connector with no problem, but not sure about using more. Voltage would remain the same on all cables but I think the current may drop and you may get some noise. I think this would depend on your pre amp's impedance output and the input imp for the amps being used.

drmolitor

Thanks. Any word from someone who's tried this? Another thought: Would it be better to just run the sub from the speaker hookups and then to the mains? Or separately on speaker B? It's a two channel system with Lsi9's.

George Grand

Instead of a split going to that "old receiver in the dining room" feed it a fixed line-level signal from the Marantz Tape Out, into one of its own Tape Mon's. That'll save one split off the preamp stage. As long as the old receiver's Tape Monitor button is engaged, it'll do whatever the Marantz tells it. Dis-engage it and the old receiver is in charge of itself again.

I do the splitting thing as little as possible. I have had results ranging from perfect, to no sound whatsoever, to WICKED hums. It all seems so simple, but it ain't.

drmolitor

Wow. That will work just the same as the pre-out?

ben62670

Is there a digital out on the Marantz PM7001, and a digital in on the secondary receiver?

drmolitor

No digital out on the Marantz.

organ

What George Grand said is probably your best bet. He's talking about using RCA cables not a digital one.

Forgot to ask. How long will the runs be? It is not recommended to run RCA cables more than 4 meters.

drmolitor

The run to the dining room is short--less than 4 meters. The run up to the bedroom is quite long--I was going to use RG-6 coaxial as it will just be used as background music. I'd thought it would be better to use the extra receiver but perhaps its better to just run speaker wire with a volume control?

ben62670

What I did was get a universal remote that was FM, and not IR. This allowed the speaker cable run with full control of the electronics from the other room.
Ben

organ

If you're only using it for background music, you should be okay if the run is not too long.

You still have to use the other receiver because that's what is going to power your other set up. The Tape Out from the Marantz is a fixed signal that doesn't go through the pre amp section. So the signal in the Tape Out is pretty much the same strength as the signal from your source. So the Tape Out from your Marantz goes into one of the inputs in the other receiver in a different room.

drmolitor

Thanks everyone. I'm going to try the Tape Out method and get back to you.

George Grand

It will work doc, but not the same as pre-out. The pre-out jacks offer a variable intensity signal, controlled by the volume knob on your Marantz receiver. The Tape Out jacks are fixed, line-level intensity, and a lot easier to work with if you think about it AND, don't know WTF you're doing.

drmolitor

So, tried the Tape Out method and it worked brilliantly, with one annoyance--the Marantz has a record selection knob that needs to be pointed to the input source being used to "open" the tape out. This means I'll always need to remember to change the record selector when switching between CD, phono, tuner. My lazy side is tempted to just split the pre-out once and hook the sub to speaker line. What's the difference between this set up and sub through the pre-out anyway? Thanks again for all the advice.

ben62670

If you are spliting the preout only once you will have no problems.

George Grand

Stop being lazy.

drmolitor

I know. I suppose what I mean is that I may occasionally forget to switch the record selector and be mildly irritated that I'm upstairs with no feed. But about the sub: what's the difference between the two hookups and why is pre-out preferred?

George Grand

Sorry, I have no idea, cause I don't mess around w/subwoofers.

organ

Good to hear it worked out. Is the sub in your bedroom? If it is, just run speaker wires to the sub and speaker wires from the sub to your mains. I doubt you'll hear a difference with this set up cuz it's only used for background music.
That should save you from having to split the pre out if you don't have an extra set of Y connectors.

The pre out is preferred because using speaker wires means the signal will have to pass through the subwoofer's internal crossover before going to your main speakers. This usually degrades the sound. Also, the line level RCA have less distortion because speaker wires will carry the "receiver's amp distortion" to the subwoofer.

drmolitor

No, the sub is in my dedicated room, paired with Lsi9's off the Marantz integrated. I suppose I'll need to choose between sound and convenience.

lakesailor

I know that the best pre-amps that offer dual pre-outs usually have that factored into the design. I would not recommend it.

drmolitor

Would not recommend what? Splitting the pre-out at all?

unc2701

Splitting the pre-out is just like driving multiple speakers in parallel. If you've got a Krell that'll double down all the way to half an ohm, rock on. If your gear can't handle it, you'll have issues.

Now, it's not as extreme as that, but try to find the input impedance of the gear that you'll be hooking to the pre. If they're all 47k ohm, no worries. If they're down around 10k ohm and you're combining a few of them, you might start having problems and you need to use the tape out and/or some of the other options mentioned.