If I use the avr300 in stereo mode is it possible to have another set of speakers wired up just for stereo that aren't used at all in multichannel mode? Alternatively is it possible to have a power amp plugged into the left & right channel pre amp outs for stereo use but still using all the 7 channels of the internal amps for multi channel? Or would it be easier to have external power amps on all the channels and just have one with switchable speaker outputs for the left and right channels so I choose between the two pairs? Possibly a even dumber question but does the avr300 have any line level inputs?
Er... I haven't really got my head round your question! Do I take it you have a pair of speakers you like to use for stereo and also an AV set up using other speakers? And are they all in the same room? Finally, is the AV system 5.1 or 7.1? I ask because this affects the options you have. As to line inputs - the AVR300 has 7 stereo analogue line inputs in all, plus an internal tuner feed. There are 6 digital inputs, 3 coaxial and 3 optical. John Dawson (Arcam)
Hi. 7 analogue inputs , that should be plenty Yes, I have another set of speakers that I would wish to use for stereo and they're in the same room. I haven't actually bought the av side yet so I am open to ideas about the best way of doing this. Ideally I would prefer a 7.1 system but a 5.1 would be ok.
OK - I guess the simplest solution is to use a two way speaker switching box to go between your stereo speakers and the equivalent AV ones. QED and others make these, probably for well under £50 (but I haven't checked lately). The input to the box would be from the main front L and R amplifiers. With good quality switches and cables there would be very little sonic penalty. If you are content with a 5.1 sysytem for AV then you could assign amplifiers 6 and 7 to zone 2 and run this as the stereo system, entirely independently from the 5.1 system. There would be a few restrictions on the zone 2 / stereo system (in particular it needs analogue rather than digital sources IIRC) but it would work pretty well and I would expect the audio quality to be very high. There might well be other options, but I would have to ask around inside the company or you could perhaps get others on this forum to make their suggestions. HTH. John Dawson (Arcam)
Thanks John. The second idea connecting a power amp to channels 6 & 7sounds like the best one. I probably wouldn't notice the difference between 5.1 and 7.1 in most situations anyway so that saves on speakers too and gets me better stereo performance while I save up for an av8/p7