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Can I rig a home theater amp to run in wall speakers?

My friend has an older rotel 5 channel power amp that he used to use with a rotel home theater preamp for a home theater.  Now he has a modern marantz home theater receiver that handles the home theater.  His new house has 8 in wall speakers distributed throughout the house.  He has a sonance speaker distribution box.  I advised him to use the rotel power amp to drive the speakers in the sonance box, using the pre-outs from the Marantz.  The current set up can only make use of 2 channels, due to the 2 pre-outs from the marantz, and thus, 3 of the channels in the Rotel power amp are going unused.  I'd prefer to put one pair of in walls at least on its own channels in the rotel, and minimize the quantity of speakers in the sonance box.

any thoughts?
marktomaras
marktomaras OP
544 posts
 
Just found out it's a Sonance SS6, waiting on the Marantz model number 
tls49's avatar
tls49
1,351 posts
 

OK, with the SS6, I'll assume the single speakers are summing speakers as I described above, and he is using 5 of the push button switches, one for each location, 3 rooms, hallway, and outdoors. When playing multiple locations, which one could use a little more volume?

marktomaras OP
544 posts
 
That is hard to say, though I would guess the outdoor speakers will need more amplifier juice, by nature of them being outside.  

Looks like they may not be summing speakers, he sent a photo and 3 pairs are connected as usual, but one line speaker only is connected to one channel. 

Thank you for the help!  
tls49's avatar
tls49
1,351 posts
 

Outdoor speakers would be my guess as well. On the SS6, 3 positions are connected normal, L&R. Then 2 positions, hallway and kitchen, have only one channel connected. Correct?

I do have a couple of ideas, but really need to know the model number of the Marantz to know it's capabilities.

marktomaras OP
544 posts
 
Just heard back from my friend.  It's the Marantz SR5006.


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