How do I connect two preamps at the same time?

Aaron,

This is pretty commonly done and many of us do this exact thing. I myself asked this question several year ago.

Feed your HT preamp's surround and center channels into the resepective amps, while the main L&R channels go into one of the tape or aux inputs of your Aragon. You must pick a level on your Aragon's preamp with which to calibrate the 5.1 channels. That level can be just a random level that other gear is often dialed to, or it can be a 12 o'clock position. Just pick one als always use that volume when listening to HT. Some peramps have HT passthrough just for this function of passing through at unity gain.

The one issue of leaving it at 12 O'clock is you must be sure to turn it down each time before going to another input.

You then calibrate the 5.1 test tones, and control the volume of HT playback with the Anthem's volume.

You do loose a bit of transparency on the main L&R channel when listening to home theater, since it is now passing through another piece of gear, but you dont loose anything when listening to 2 channel music.

Thank you for your response.

However, is it also possible to have a split interconnect from the amp to both preamps (one coming out of the amp to two going into each preamp)? I can then have the left/right analog interconnects go from my Denon 3930ci to the Aragon and the multi-channel analog and the digital out from the Denon to the Anthem.

In this way, I can segregate the different types of listening:

A: two channel music would go to the Aragon preamp

B: 5.1 music (sacd/dvda) would go to the Anthem

C: digital music going to the Anthem.

Please let me know if this is possible. Thank you, Aaron

Its possible but not recommended at all. Will result in significant signal degradation and possible equipment damage.

connecting in the way Emailists describes accomplishes exactly what you're seeking. Try it.

I definitely wouldn't attempt the split interconnect approach you describe.

Perhaps consider getting a preamp with HT bypass capability.

This allows a fairly "straight wire" unity gain path through the preamp for HT, but provides the purity of 2-ch playback you want for non-HT sources because the pre/pro isn't in the signal path.

Are you using the Anthem's analog direct mode for your 2-ch sources?