2. home-theater
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Receiver working as pre-amp, TURNS OFF, whenever Second Zone/Speaker B goes loud

In my living room, I have a 9.1 Pioneer Elite Receiver (at the time, their top of the line, largest PSU version), as my Home Theatre, and my pre-amp for my 2-ch audio with a Classe’ amp.

It power 5.1 in one room, and 2-ch in another room. What’s happening is that whenever I am listening to music, or watching video, IF I have the second room/zone ON, and if I get the volume high to -20dB or higher, on LOUDER passage, the Amp shuts down! Doing the same with 2-ch (through the amp), or 5.1 (2 from Classe’ the other 3 from receiver), it has NO ISSUES! Could go 0dB or +5dB, over 100dB volume level.

Question is, what’s the main cause? First thought is that Amp does NOT have enough power to feed all channels, despite having supposedly 4 more channels to drive (as front channels have their own amp), or that the LONG WIRING to the other room speakers are causing some higher load, or other issue? Could it be speaker terminations? or what else could be causing this?

Thanks


alexb76
reubent
7,003 posts
 
It may be the impedance of your speakers. Does the Pioneer support 4 ohm (or lower) speakers attached to all channels, or do they recommend only 6/8-16 ohm speakers? Check the specs of the receiver and check the specs of your loudspeakers. It might be printed on the back of the receiver by the speaker connectors. It is likely printed on your speakers need the speaker connectors or serial number tag.

sfar's avatar
sfar
1,760 posts
 
I sold to a friend a pair of 4 ohm Monitor Audio speakers which had worked well in my house with a McCormack amp and a fairly longer cable run. But in his house with an inexpensive receiver and a very long speaker cable run the receiver would shut down after just a few seconds. Moving the speakers close to the receiver solved the problem but I suspect the real issue was that the amplifier in the receiver just didn't have enough grunt for the 4 ohm load.
mapman's avatar
mapman
22,295 posts
 
Yes running two pair of speakers from most 2 channel amps concurrently puts the two in the circuit in parallel which lowers the impedance and that will make the amp tap out sooner. You might consider trying an external speaker switch. Good ones have built in circuitry to adjust impedance when multiple speakers are running concurrently.

I have 4 pairs of speakers in 4 different rooms running off my 2-channel system and use a Niles speaker switch for this purpose. I’ve never had an issue but then I never would even attempt to go full volume ever off a home amp with multiple speaker pairs attached just as a safety precaution.
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