Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Stereo One pair of speakers, two amps..?

Hey everyone. I just recently got a tube amp to use with my M22 speakers. I also have a kenwood solid state 5.1 amp that I was using before. Is there any way that I can hook up my pair of speakers to both my tube amp and stereo amp, for use at different times? When I'm listening to music I'd like to use the tube, and for watching DVDs and Movies I'd use the kendwood instead.

Thanks for any advice!

I'm thinking your going to have to use some kind of speaker selector to switch sources, but I'm not sure if they will work with a tube amp.

Holy schmolies. It's been what --- (checks posting history) -- almost two and a half years and you think you could slide right in with an innocent question and avoid any fanfare? Welcome back.

Now that that's out of the way, you'll definitely need a speaker switch. Any A/B switch of the "break before make" variety will do just fine. You'll connect the speakers to the common terminal (the one that usually goes to the amp), and connect the two amps to the A and B terminals.

Here are some options:

http://www.futurehomesystems.com/a500.shtml
http://www.crutchfield.com/cgi-bin/ProdView.asp?i=190SSVC2

Hi pmbuko, thanks for your reply!

Haha yeah I havn't posted in awhile, I didn't realize it's been over 2 years :P

Anyways thanks for the info, I looked around at some A/B switches on the internet. Most sites which sell them don't seem like they'll ship to Canada though. I did find one in Futureshop (is it american? they are owned by bestbuy), which is handy cause I can just go and pick it up.

I'm not sure exactly what you mean by 'break before make'. Does this one seem like it'll work? Quest QLS 6.1

Thanks again, it's a big help.

umm...I do not think you can connect a Tube amp to a switch box...I think. Some other tube amplifier designs will oscillate or go into overload if they are used without a speaker or resistive load attached to the speaker output terminals.

I learned the hard way.
Saturn

You could always wait until you've switched the box to power up the tube amp. Then again, I suppose many people don't power down the tubes so you don't need to wait for them to warm up.

I only have the tube amp on when Im going to listen to music.. I dont leave it on usually.

That reminds me, since this is my first tube amp, kind of an impulse buy without much research, is there anything I should know about using them? Any thing I should do to prolong the life of the tubes, etc.
Tube amp I have


So, if I switch the box before turning on the amp, it should work without any difficulty you think?

I was thinking that he would be switching back and forth to do a A-B hearing tests. Some tube amps are okey if they are not connected but I thought majority need them to be connected or they ossilate. Cary tube amps supposedly can be turned on not connected without ossilating.
Actually if they powered down and then powered up when the tubes were warm to begin with really doesn't deter on the sound that much specially if they have only a few tubes.

What would happen if I hook up two pairs or speaker wires to my speakers, going out to the two seperate amplifiers? Would it damage something? Even if only one amplifier was turned on at a time?

In reply to:

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Would it damage something? Even if only one amplifier was turned on at a time?

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As a non-engineer scribe, I'm going to cautiously say "yes".

I think that's a real bad idea. My understanding is that Peter's scenario is the only safe way to do this, while also keeping in mind that you would want to make sure you did things in the right "order" to avoid Saturn's unfortunate experience.