Dear Stereonet friends - I decided to try out 5.1 home theatre to get my toes wet and see what it is all about.
I bought a new condition modern Yamaha 5.1 receiver with HDMI in and out for $50 from Gumtree locally from a couple moving to Sydney. It doesn't have a ton of power, but I don't really care as if I get really interested I will move up later. The HT box is a Yamaha RX-V371.
In the room where the Blu-Ray player and TV are located, I have my hi-fi rig. It is based on a pre-amp/power amp pair for the stand-mounted hi-fi speakers, and I also have a custom-built sub with a Merlin Audio-built crossover that I can vary the relative volumes of the mains and sub with. I am using the hi-fi speakers as the fronts
I have a pair of cast-off Pioneer units for the rear of the 5.1 setup.
My question is this - so far I am worried about killing both amps from mixing signals/power from each amp if both are accidentally turned on at the same time, so I have wired up the fronts separately. New leads from the Yamaha to the speakers are switched by pulling out the hi-fi power amp speaker from the leads and plugging in the HT leads, so that they never connect electrically (and back again when I want stereo from the hi-fi). This is a pain of course. Is this the best way to go? How do you guys do it? On this amp there are no signal level outputs (except for the sub).
I bought a speaker switch box from Dick Smith before they went bust that I could plumb in to do duty instead of front speaker physical lead swapping - is this a good idea?
Also, the Yamaha has a line level sub feed (no sub power amp present in the HT unit). What is the best way to "merge" the wiring to the sub amp so I can get both hi-fi and HT sound? Can I just use a cable splitter and connect both feeds before the amp? Will this cause any damage or is there a better way (another switch box perhaps?)
Any help will be appreciated.