1 Pair Of Speakers But 2 Amps - Is It Do-able?

[im]

Long story short, I have 1 set of speakers I'd like to hook up to 2 amps (well, 1 AV Receiver and 1 Hi-Fi amp actually) so that I don't clutter the room with loads of speakers.

I'm told (but dont know if its right) that if the speakers are wired up to both amps directly then the current from one amp will enter the speakers and also travel on to the 2nd amp where all sorts of nasties could happen (to the the 2nd amp).

The speakers I have are bi-amp speakers so could I utilise this facet of them to wire to the 2 amps or am I 'whistling dixie' here??? Does 'bi-amp' mean 2-amps can be fed into them or just 2 seperate inputs from 1 amp?

But just to re-interate, logistically I dont have a choice about doing this any other way. The AV receiver is fully utilised with various bits of AV kit so my hi-fi stuff must run from my hi-fi amp and the wife is at her wits end with the 5.1 speakers already in the lounge......so I HAVE to utilise the front pair for for my Hi-Fi.

All advice greatfully received.

[Steve_T]

Any means to take a line level output from the AV receiver and feed it into your hifi amp? That way your front speakers are always driven by the hifi amp, with the feed from the receiver being just another source as far as your hifi system is concerned. Depends on the recceiver you have, but it's possible on some.

[im]

Steve_T said:

Any means to take a line level output from the AV receiver and feed it into your hifi amp? That way your front speakers are always driven by the hifi amp, with the feed from the receiver being just another source as far as your hifi system is concerned. Depends on the recceiver you have, but it's possible on some.

Thanks for the quick response.

Unfortunately its not possible on my AV receiver - but I do like your out-of-box thinking

[Steve_T]

Ok, what about this?

http://www.superfi.co.uk/index.cfm/page/moreinfo.c...

You'd need to manually switch which feed is driving the speakers from the looks of it and get another run of speaker cable together - or perhaps two short ones so you can hide the switch boxes - but it should do the job. There are some cheaper ones available too, I just googled speaker switch.

[garycat]

You need a speaker switch like Steve T suggested.

Bi-amping means using two amps to drive the two different drivers in the speaker (the woofer & tweeter) so you cant do that.

[im]

We have a winner!

I'll order one today.

Such a shame that speakers aren't made that can take 2 inputs from 2 amps....although thinking about it they probably are but are also probably expensive.

Thanks Steve.

[Steve_T]

Usually you want to keep the signal path as clean as possible, it depends on your requirements ... and the tolerance of your wife!