Does anyone have any experience with hooking up a two channel preamp and amp to a multichannel receiver using the HT bypass feature? This problem is frustrating because I'm convinced it's something simple or obvious that I am overlooking.

I've been using a separate two channel amp in my HT set-up. Recently I decided to add in a preamp that I had. I wanted to see what it could add to my two channel listening experience. Problem is is that I want to be able to use the HT bypass on the preamp so when I watch a movie I can control the volume with the receiver. I don't want to play the game of trying to match the volume of the receiver with the volume of the preamp. As I believe, this is the function of the HT bypass, right?

I'm using my Denon 2900 as both my cd player and dvd player. Okay, I have my speakers hooked up to the 2 channel amp. The 2 channel amp is hooked up to the preamp. The 2900 is hooked up to the cd input of the preamp. My H/K receiver is hooked up to the preamps HT bypass input through the preout rcas.

When I use my Denon as a cd player, everything is fine. However, I get no sound from the left and right channels when I switch the preamp to HT bypass. If I switch the dial on the preamp back to "cd" I get sound, but the preamp is controlling the volume. If I want to use my Xbox or PS2, I can't get any sound out of the left and right channels no matter what. I am getting very frustrated with this, but I am determined to make it work.

Does anyone have any ideas or suggestions? Go easy on me if I've made a stupid mistake somewhere. Please.

The 2900 needs to be hooked up to both the preamp (stereo RCA) and HK receiver (optical or coax) -- assume this is already done ?

Seems to me the real trick is going to be getting the 2900 to output to the analog jacks when playing a CD and to the TOSLINK (optical / coax) when playing a DVD... or does it do this automatically ?

It sounds like the HK isn't getting an input, so nothing is going to the pre-outs, so nothing comes out of the amp when pre is set to HT bypass. What source are you using when HT bypass is enabled ? Hope it's not CD unless you have CD input on the HK as well

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The 2900 needs to be hooked up to both the preamp (stereo RCA) and HK receiver (optical or coax) -- assume this is already done ?

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Yeah, I did that.

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Seems to me the real trick is going to be getting the 2900 to output to the analog jacks when playing a CD and to the TOSLINK (optical / coax) when playing a DVD... or does it do this automatically ?

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It should be doing this automatically. When using it for two channel listening while it was hooked up to the HK, I set the HK to the six channel analog input, not the cd input.

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It sounds like the HK isn't getting an input, so nothing is going to the pre-outs, so nothing comes out of the amp when pre is set to HT bypass. What source are you using when HT bypass is enabled ? Hope it's not CD unless you have CD input on the HK as well

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If I keep the preamp set to cd, I get sound when I select the DVD source on the HK. I have two volume knobs to adjust, though. But when I turn on my Xbox, I get no sound out of the left and right no matter what setting I have the preamp at--cd or HT bypass.