Will my AVR suffer damage?

kawizx9r

This may actually be a dumb question, but I would just feel better if I heard it come from someone else. I'm using a Denon 684/1604 AVR to power my HT, I also have a stand alone 2 channel setup with SDA's hooked up to it. I'm really liking the sound of my SDA's and would like to use them as my front channel setup of my HT, thing is I don't have pre amp outputs on my AVR. I have my blu ray player hooked up to my AVR via optical digital out, while at the same time connected to the preamp of my 2 channel setup via rca IC's. Will any damage be caused to my AVR if I run it powering only my center+surrounds but no front channel load? I know some AVR's don't suffer any damage but those have pre amp outs and mine doesn't, was wondering if it'd act any differently, thanks.

WilliamM2

No damage at all. But I am wondering how you would integrate the two systems together for HT.

cnh

That's an interesting question. Firstly, the R/L outputs of the pre-amp are receiving a down-mixed 5.1 surround soundtrack...so that will interfere with the true discrete info being passed to the rest of the channels in 5.1 or 7.1...?

Secondly I'm not even sure the Denon will ALLOW you to run it if there are no fronts hooked to it? I could be wrong here...but I don't think so?

cnh

kawizx9r

It was worth a shot considering:
1 My living room is small and having SDA's with a pair of tower RT1000P's just takes so much space
2 I've seen more and more people utilize their SDA's as their front channel setup and seem pleased with the result
3 Among those people that use their SDAs as fronts, they all seem to have CS400's or CS350's as their center channel (one very common factor I've noticed) and I myself have a CS350.
4 Having such "large" speakers as fronts, would only be ideal if I used my towers as rears for full dynamic sound from all angles.

kawizx9r

cnh wrote: »

That's an interesting question. Firstly, the R/L outputs of the pre-amp are receiving a down-mixed 5.1 surround soundtrack...so that will interfere with the true discrete info being passed to the rest of the channels in 5.1 or 7.1...?

Secondly I'm not even sure the Denon will ALLOW you to run it if there are no fronts hooked to it?

cnh

The Denon runs fine actually, well it has for the first hour I've been watching Transformers on blu ray, and doesn't seem to be getting any hotter than it usually does or anything. I was just worried over the long run

cnh

That's fine, you definitely won't hurt anything...but you have A FULL 2 channel soundtrack on your SDAs and 3.1 or 5.1 on the rest of your system minus the discrete L/R info?

That should sound a bit 'off'.

cnh

obieone

I can't imagine that it would? What are you going to do with the RT1000's, set up a second 2 ch. rig?

kawizx9r

Yea, I'll just hold it off until I can get a receiver with pre outs and just use that as my pre/pro and hook up my tube to that for my SDA's? So far it does sound a little off, but it just may be the fact that my AVR is doing 3.1 and my SDA's full 2 chan like you described.

kawizx9r

obieone wrote: »

I can't imagine that it would? What are you going to do with the RT1000's, set up a second 2 ch. rig?

Was going to use the RT1000's as rear surrounds

cnh

Here's what you should do! If your Blu-ray has 7.1 RCA outs or 5.1....and the Denon 7.1 ins or 5.1. Connect the Blu-ray using all RCAs and pass the L/R to your pre-amp. That way the Blu-ray will decode everything and separate it to the Denon and to the Pre in the appropriate manner! You should connect that way in any case because that Denon does not have decoding for TRU-HD formats?

Problem solved?

cnh

kawizx9r

It's been awhile since I've actually looked behind my blu ray player, that thought did occur while looking at my sacd/dvd-a player because it has analog outputs for each channel, don't think my blu ray player does though gimme a few minutes.

jimmydep

cnh, good idea....best of both worlds.



Jimmy

kawizx9r

Nope, it doesn't unfortunately. I'll just wait to pick up an avr later in the future with pre outs. That'll have to wait though since I'm not looking to rush anything anytime soon, my RT1000's are awesome front channel speakers imo

thuffman03

I don't think it will do damage to the AVR but you could do damage to the speakers if you get to high volumes and over drive the AVR and it starts clipping.

I would upgrade and make sure you have a good amp on the SDA's. For now just keep it at lower volume till you can get a bigger amp on them.

kawizx9r

thuffman03 wrote: »

I don't think it will do damage to the AVR but you could do damage to the speakers if you get to high volumes and over drive the AVR and it starts clipping.

I would upgrade and make sure you have a good amp on the SDA's. For now just keep it at lower volume till you can get a bigger amp on them.

I don't get it?...I do have a good amp on my SDA's, running a Moscode 300 just for them, and my HT setup is run off a Denon AVR. I was mainly concerned about my AVR running only my center+surrounds and if any damage would be caused because I wouldn't have front L/R channel speakers hooked up to it.

TECHNOKID

kawizx9r wrote: »

I don't get it?...I do have a good amp on my SDA's, running a Moscode 300 just for them, and my HT setup is run off a Denon AVR. I was mainly concerned about my AVR running only my center+surrounds and if any damage would be caused because I wouldn't have front L/R channel speakers hooked up to it.

You do not have to worry about damaging your AVR as previously mentionned. In fact, you are freeying some extra power for the speakers that are hooked-up to the AVR.

AVRs and Amps use reference voltage which remains constant, not having a speaker hooked-up to some of the channel simply keeps this path open (just like a switch would do when the path is opened) not allowing the current to flow and that unsused current can then be used elsewhere.

As far as your SDAs, as long as that external Amp has enough power to drive them, you will not have any problems. The only reason to have problem would be if the Amp has a much lower power rating or higher impedance value than the SDAs then and only then you could have issues (if lower power from the Amp, could cause clipping. If higher impedence at the amp, could cause the Amp to overheat) but otherwise you are fine.

Driving an Amp is a combination of the voltage reference and the current (ExI = P). The current is flowing as per load demand, if load isn't present then there is simply no flow and will not damage the AVR as this is the way it is designed to work.

Cheers!
TK

Serendipity

You should be fine.

kawizx9r

TECHNOKID wrote: »

You do not have to worry about damaging your AVR as previously mentionned. In fact, you are freeying some extra power for the speakers that are hooked-up to the AVR.

AVRs and Amps use reference voltage which remains constant, not having a speaker hooked-up to some of the channel simply keeps this path open (just like a switch would do when the path is opened) not allowing the current to flow and that unsused current can then be used elsewhere.

As far as your SDAs, as long as that external Amp has enough power to drive them, you will not have any problems. The only reason to have problem would be if the Amp has a much lower power rating or higher impedance value than the SDAs then and only then you could have issues (if lower power from the Amp, could cause clipping. If higher impedence at the amp, could cause the Amp to overheat) but otherwise you are fine.

Driving an Amp is a combination of the voltage reference and the current (ExI = P). The current is flowing as per load demand, if load isn't present then there is simply no flow and will not damage the AVR as this is the way it is designed to work.

Cheers!
TK

Thanks as far as the tube goes thats alright. It can handle anything from 8ohm (150wpc) down to 4ohm(300wpc) and my SDA's are 6ohm. I even hear about people running sda's on a tube at 20wpc

TECHNOKID

kawizx9r wrote: »

Thanks as far as the tube goes thats alright. It can handle anything from 8ohm (150wpc) down to 4ohm(300wpc) and my SDA's are 6ohm. I even hear about people running sda's on a tube at 20wpc

Why not, a larger amp can easily drive the 20wpc without any issues, it is a simple matter of not cranking too high (you would hear the distortion anyway).