• Some users have recently had their accounts hijacked. It seems that the now defunct EVGA forums might have compromised your password there and seems many are using the same PW here. We would suggest you UPDATE YOUR PASSWORD and TURN ON 2FA for your account here to further secure it. None of the compromised accounts had 2FA turned on.
    Once you have enabled 2FA, your account will be updated soon to show a badge, letting other members know that you use 2FA to protect your account. This should be beneficial for everyone that uses FSFT.

Line out level amp

B

Bun-Bun

Gawd
Joined
Sep 11, 2003
Messages
555
Have a Yamaha RX-V661 and the line outs are ridiculously low. Anything I hook up to it has to be cranked to get to a descent volume and in the case of my recent powered speakers you can barely hear them at all.

Are there any cheap Line out level amps or preamps that are any good? I don't need crazy quality as the speakers are not audiophile grade or anything. Its just an extra set of speakers for another room.
 
it would be difficult to say without knowing what your hooking it up to. theres no reason why the line out volume would be that low there may be another issue there.
it looks like what you want is an active preamp.
 
Doesn't matter what I hook it up to the line out level are much lower then the powered levels.

However I discovered I have effectively a 20db range of level adjustment by turning down the levels that have passive speakers attached and turing up the levels that are attached via pre-out. So sub and F/L are at +10db and my center and surrounds (powered by the A/V) are around -5 -6 db. Fairly blanced it seems. I will have to find the optimizer mic and let it auto set I think.

Long story short I dont need to amp the line outs for now.
 
those adjustments shouldnt effect line outs...only pre outs. are you connecting to line outs or pre outs?
try connecting to the 'tape' output.
 
Didn't know there was a difference...

But I suppose there is.

My receiver doesn't have any line outs. Just pre outs. Sorry for the confusion.
 
Line level outputs and pre outputs are not the same thing. Looking at the back of the RX-V661, the unit has pre outs and amplifier binding posts for passive speakers.

You should not be using any line level outputs, such as loop outputs, at all in your case.

If you have a mix of powered and passive speakers, then yes, you need to attach the powered speakers to the proper pre outs and use the receiver's software to adjust levels for the individual channels, as you last posted.

Also, most powered speakers have trim pots on them, make sure that these are set to max if using the receiver for channel leveling.

On a side note, mixing powered speakers with passive speakers can be very challenging. (Even if you match levels via test tones, level matching during highly dynamic scenes in movies is going to be very, very difficult.) This is especially true for matching powered F/L speakers with a passive center channel as these three speakers should ideally be timbre matched to each other.

If at all possible, it might be best to pick up two more passive speakers or use the powered speakers for the surrounds.

EDIT: Posted before a page refresh, sorry for any duplicated information.
 
This is just a temporary solution. I am using logitech Z-680 sat's powered by the A/V receiver and using the sub from that set powered by its own amp.

I got some powered speakers for cheap that sound pretty descent and are a significant upgrade to the logitech sat's so I am using these for the front for now.

short term I am saving up for a seperate dedicated two channel amp for the fronts and some front towers. Paradigm monitor 11's are what I am currently looking at. From there I will upgrade the other sats to match.
 
Yeah, that is a rather unorthodox setup.

Be careful with what you have the sub crossed over at. I am not sure what frequency the Z-680 satellites bottom out at, but I doubt it's 80Hz, and if you are using one of them for the center channel, keep in mind that the vast majority of sound in a movie (and surround sound in general) is sent to the center channel.

The center channel is simultaneously the most oft-neglected and most important speaker in surround sound.
 
Crossed at 100Hz.

And I know about the center channel neglect. My primary focus is 2 channel for SQ. When I get around to upgrading the center and surrounds I will. But fronts are my main focus.
 
Bun-Bun said:
Have a Yamaha RX-V661 and the line outs are ridiculously low. Anything I hook up to it has to be cranked to get to a descent volume and in the case of my recent powered speakers you can barely hear them at all.

Are there any cheap Line out level amps or preamps that are any good? I don't need crazy quality as the speakers are not audiophile grade or anything. Its just an extra set of speakers for another room.
Click to expand...

You aren't supposed to hook powered speakers to line outputs. You're supposed to hook them to a pre-amp. How do you even control their volume if not with a pre-amp?
 
Fair enough. If you are going to do audio on a budget, it is almost always best to do it piecemeal.

Bun-Bun said:
Crossed at 100Hz.

And I know about the center channel neglect. My primary focus is 2 channel for SQ. When I get around to upgrading the center and surrounds I will. But fronts are my main focus.
Click to expand...
 
Yup.

My logic is why spend $2k on a speaker set now when I can spend $2k on just the fronts now and get what I actually want and do the rest later.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top