Using seperate amps with integrated receiver

lukewayne
lukewayne Posts: 80
edited October 2009 in Electronics
Hey guys,

I recently started acquiring some separate amps to use with my integrated receiver.

Ive got a Sony STR-DA5400ES and i'm using the pre-outs to send signals to my carver amps. Currently i have a TFM-55 for mains and TFM-35 for center hooked up. The Sony is only powering the surround speakers (1 pair)

My concern is that the Sony still gets quite hot while in use, and it since it's only driving the surround channels it seems to me that it shouldn't get so warm.

I was unable to find any information in the Sony manual about any settings to
change when using external amplifiers, and i am wondering if there is any common practices that people do when using a setup like this?

Would a receiver like this be able to automatically disable its internal amplifiers if no speaker is connected to a channel? Or is it still trying to send the signals to all the speakers?

I tried setting the speaker selector (A,B,A+B,OFF) to Off, but that turns off the pre-out's as well.

Would installing jumpers from + to - complete the circut with 0 load be something to try, or would that create a short and fry the amp? i remember seeing jumpers on one set of speaker terminals on old receivers that allowed for hookup of multiple pairs of speakers, but that was only on one set. Is at least some load required?

Maybe the Sony gets hot just from its video processing chips, but I thought it wouldn't get as hot when using external amplifiers. :(

Any thoughts on this subject would be greatly appreciated, or if no one has any experience with this particular setup, i'll post results if i find some.

thanks :)
luke
________________________________
Panasonic TH-50PZ800U; Sony BDP-S350
Sony STR-DA5400ES; Carver TFM-55
Carver TFM-35; Carver A-500x
Sony Playstation 3; Custom HTPC
Polk Monitor 10B Front; 2xPolk CS350LS Center;
Monitor 5B rears (RB0194-1 Upgrade);
Velodyne VA1012XII sub
Post edited by lukewayne on
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Comments

  • dorokusai
    dorokusai Posts: 25,576
    edited October 2009
    Don't worry about it Luke, its normal. Now turn the music up and sit down.
    CTC BBQ Amplifier, Sonic Frontiers Line3 Pre-Amplifier and Wadia 581 SACD player. Speakers? Always changing but for now, Mission Argonauts I picked up for $50 bucks, mint.
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  • bigaudiofanatic
    bigaudiofanatic Posts: 4,415
    edited October 2009
    ^^^ What he said
    HT setup
    Panasonic 50" TH-50PZ80U
    Denon DBP-1610
    Monster HTS 1650
    Carver A400X :cool:
    MIT Exp 3 Speaker Wire
    Kef 104/2
    URC MX-780 Remote
    Sonos Play 1

    Living Room
    63 inch Samsung PN63C800YF
    Polk Surroundbar 3000
    Samsung BD-C7900
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  • apphd
    apphd Posts: 1,514
    edited October 2009
    I think what everyone is saying, and at least what I believe to be the case but don't know, is that even when using the pre outs of an AVR the entire amp section remains active. You just don't have the load on it you normally would have. This also (again not sure on this) means you can still over drive the AVR amps and induce clipping.

    Hope someone in the know here can add more to this as I would like to know if my thoughts on this are correct as well.
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  • BlueFox
    BlueFox Posts: 15,250
    edited October 2009
    I am using the Sony 7100ES with an external amp, and it gets as hot as when it was being used as an amp. This also surprised me as I thought it would not get hot, so I put my DVD player on top of it. Since the DVD player was a Sony 9100ES, the two looked good stacked in that manner, but when I happened to touch it and felt how hot is was I immediately removed it. So, I guess unless one gets a dedicated pre/pro heat is something AVR users have to accept.
    Lumin X1 file player, Westminster Labs interconnect cable
    Sony XA-5400ES SACD; Pass XP-22 pre; X600.5 amps
    Magico S5 MKII Mcast Rose speakers; SPOD spikes

    Shunyata Triton v3/Typhon QR on source, Denali 2000 (2) on amps
    Shunyata Sigma XLR analog ICs, Sigma speaker cables
    Shunyata Sigma HC (2), Sigma Analog, Sigma Digital, Z Anaconda (3) power cables

    Mapleshade Samson V.3 four shelf solid maple rack, Micropoint brass footers
    Three 20 amp circuits.
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  • lukewayne
    lukewayne Posts: 80
    edited October 2009
    Thanks for the input guys, i'll check the temp with no output.

    im a bit sad that i can't disable the internal amplifier. :( oh well sounds better with the carvers, so i guess its worth it.
    ________________________________
    Panasonic TH-50PZ800U; Sony BDP-S350
    Sony STR-DA5400ES; Carver TFM-55
    Carver TFM-35; Carver A-500x
    Sony Playstation 3; Custom HTPC
    Polk Monitor 10B Front; 2xPolk CS350LS Center;
    Monitor 5B rears (RB0194-1 Upgrade);
    Velodyne VA1012XII sub
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