CD player just tanked.

There was a surround sound pre-amp and a large 5 channel amp. The amp and pre-amp are very foreign to me.

The subwoofer is powered but I could not get it to drive the speakers. No sound from speakers at all even though the subwoofer was
going. 

Let the sub power itself and don't try to power the B&Ws with 25w. The large 5 channel amp is for the speakers. The sub amp is for the sub. Use line level (RCA cable) from the preamp to the sub. 

If you MUST use speaker level inputs then there is probably a switch on the sub you need to engage to tell it to use line level or speaker level.

The manuals will be a big help getting you started with that new setup. You can just hook up preamp to the 5 channel amp with just  2 RCA cables and only run 2 channels off the amp to the speakers. You don't need to fully set everything up in 5.1 to get started. 2.0 or 2.1 should be great. Depending on the bass output in your listening room you may not even need the sub if you haven't been using one previously.

Also if you are young and without kids go racing now save your love of audio for when you can't justify racing (time/cost/risk) anymore due to having family and/or are paying for private school and college and all that other fun stuff. And then enjoy racing and audio after all that. I'm in the paying/saving stage right now and sold my track car and lifts and other toys related to the hobby as I just can't justify racing a few times a year for how much it costs and how I am putting myself at risk as well.

HTH!

PCB= printed circuit board. That’s all I know about technical stuff.

jennerl, I tried what you recommended but no go. I’m sure I’m doing something wrong. However, there is also a like-new Onkyo home theater system with standard speaker and sub hook ups and it is 85 watts per channel so I’m going to try that for simplicity.

Technically I am not racing. Just track days. I’m an instructor. I’ve got roll bar, race seats, HANS and all that for safety. We have an instructor run group and even though we aren’t technically "racing"....we are actually racing a good bit...informally...so safety is a serious (and expensive) issue.

My children are grown and on their own. I’m in pretty good health. Hope to keep doing this another 5-10 years. Other than tires and brake pads I’ve got the expenses pretty low.

Ah....you are where I want to be in 10--15 years when my daughter is out of school! Didn't mean to talk "down" to you at all, I had no idea your age or situation. What club or group do you instruct with?

My problem is I feel in love with the wrong marque to track. Porsche Club racing and Porsche Club HPDE events, car and parts are like money vacuums! I'm located very close to Lime Rock Park in CT and it's really the only way for me to race unless I wanted to do Spec Miata. Since our racing season is so short due to the weather we don't have enough other established car clubs. BMW has a great club and Audi's is "OK" but neither does anything more than HDPE out here. The clubs that allow any marque/driver are like the the wild west and are too risky to bring a Porsche too.

Anyhow back to the audio stuff good luck! Feel free to message or email me if I can help you out at all.

Racing is a whole other level of expense regardless of the car compared to HPDE.

I drive with NASA. They are loads of fun to run with but the racing classes are serious and you don't see too many shiny late model high branded cars.

DE4, for me, is tons of fun. Find 4 or 5 guys with comparable cars/talent and race all you want....just don't call it racing. I drive a 2007 Nissan 350Z that is not worth anything. I think it is a lot more fun when I don't have to worry about wadding up an expensive car.....but it certainly does not drive like a Porsche!

Funny thing is, down here in the south I skip July-Sept.NASA SE doesn't even run in August at all. Just too dang hot.

Yes, back to the music. I'm fortunate to enter the hobby with upper level stuff but for me there is sticker shock for every little tweak. I'm getting used to it.