# Two amps, one sub.



## wado1942 (May 14, 2006)

Hello,

I have what I think to be a somewhat unique situation. I have a 5.1 receiver that's feeding my mains and sub. All of that receiver's analogue inputs are being used and it is without phono preamp. I have my cassette deck and turntable feeding a separate stereo receiver and two receivers feed the L/R front speakers through an A/B switch. The problem is that the stereo receiver is not currently feeding the sub and I miss having the bottom octave of my music when listening to those sources.

Here's my idea. The sub is currently fed via RCA line-level input from the 5.1 receiver. It also has speaker-level inputs, so it can go in-line between the amp and mains. Would there be any issue with using both at the same time? I could put the sub inline between the switch & receivers, calibrate the sub's crossover & gain for this mode. I'd turn off the bass management on the 5.1 receiver and merely use its RCA sub output jack for the LFE channel and use the LFE gain to make any necessary adjustments.

Any advice is welcome.


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## Mike P. (Apr 6, 2007)

Is the 5.1 receiver for HT and the stereo receiver is for music?


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## wado1942 (May 14, 2006)

Somewhat. The Blu-Ray player is also used for CD, SACD and Pandora.


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## Mike P. (Apr 6, 2007)

Since the RCA line-level input is independent of the speaker-level inputs then as long as only one receiver is on at a time there shouldn't be a problem.


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## wado1942 (May 14, 2006)

I don't have a block diagram, so I don't know for sure. I suppose it would HAVE to be independent, since the speaker-level inputs are stereo while the RCA jack is mono. I guess I could take an ohm meter to the RCA center pin and the speaker terminal to see if they have the potential of loading each other.


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## Mike P. (Apr 6, 2007)

What is the make and model of the sub?


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## wado1942 (May 14, 2006)

Polk PSW505


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## Mike P. (Apr 6, 2007)

That's a typical plate amp. Best to verify the inputs like you stated just to make sure.


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