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The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Inspect Your Gadgets > AV receiver with pre-outs and can drive 4ohm speakers?
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wang souffle
Apr 26, 2002


 I realize this is a pretty specific request, but I'm having trouble finding a new receiver that fits with a friend's existing equipment. Basically, they have a fully analog 5.1 setup now with 4ohm speakers across the board and their Dolby Pro Logic decoder finally died. They have a two-channel amp for the front speakers, but the center and rears need power. Seems that it's risky to run most low-/mid-range receivers with 4ohm speakers. If the center and rears are only going to be used for TV/movie surround sound, is there a big risk of overloading the receiver?

The idea is to replace with a new receiver that can handle HDMI and decode digital audio streams. That means having decoded pre-outs for the front two channels, and enough power to drive three 4ohm speakers directly. Any obvious suggestions?

# ? Feb 15, 2013 18:05
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# ? May 24, 2013 05:55
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Cornjob
Jun 12, 2007

NOT AN ACTOR


 You can't use the pre amp section to drive speakers without an amplifier.

The pre outs are used to feed an amp, then the amp needs to drive the speakers.

Cornjob fucked around with this message at Feb 15, 2013 around 19:50

# ? Feb 15, 2013 19:48
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wang souffle
Apr 26, 2002

wang souffle posted:

They have a two-channel amp for the front speakers, but the center and rears need power.
Surely some receivers can allow an external amp to power some channels while it handles the rest?

# ? Feb 15, 2013 20:39
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i like Ham
Dec 25, 2006

I'm a big fancy business man. Mind if I check you'r prostate?

 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...N82E16882117412

Full analog pass-through capabilities and 4 ohm stable. I can't say for sure that you can use the pre-amp outputs in combination with the amplified outputs for the rear; but I can't imagine that you wouldn't be able to, and a cursory glance at the owners manual makes me think I'm right. Just use the regular speaker outputs for the rear channels and leave the fronts disconnected. Just because you have the amp turned on for most doesn't mean it's going to shut down the pre-amps.

I just ordered one from newegg for myself last week since the emotiva umc-200s are still on backorder and the price was so good. I've been really impressed so far.

# ? Feb 15, 2013 22:52
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wang souffle
Apr 26, 2002


 That looks like a pretty solid choice, thanks for the link.

# ? Feb 16, 2013 01:54
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The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Inspect Your Gadgets > AV receiver with pre-outs and can drive 4ohm speakers?