Using seperate amps with integrated receiver

[lukewayne]

Hey guys,

I recently started acquiring some separate amps to use with my integrated receiver.

Ive got a Sony STR-DA5400ES and i'm using the pre-outs to send signals to my carver amps. Currently i have a TFM-55 for mains and TFM-35 for center hooked up. The Sony is only powering the surround speakers (1 pair)

My concern is that the Sony still gets quite hot while in use, and it since it's only driving the surround channels it seems to me that it shouldn't get so warm.

I was unable to find any information in the Sony manual about any settings to
change when using external amplifiers, and i am wondering if there is any common practices that people do when using a setup like this?

Would a receiver like this be able to automatically disable its internal amplifiers if no speaker is connected to a channel? Or is it still trying to send the signals to all the speakers?

I tried setting the speaker selector (A,B,A+B,OFF) to Off, but that turns off the pre-out's as well.

Would installing jumpers from + to - complete the circut with 0 load be something to try, or would that create a short and fry the amp? i remember seeing jumpers on one set of speaker terminals on old receivers that allowed for hookup of multiple pairs of speakers, but that was only on one set. Is at least some load required?

Maybe the Sony gets hot just from its video processing chips, but I thought it wouldn't get as hot when using external amplifiers. :(

Any thoughts on this subject would be greatly appreciated, or if no one has any experience with this particular setup, i'll post results if i find some.

thanks :)
luke

[xcapri79]

Many receivers run warm without any output.
There are many components that create heat.
Try it without any output and note it's temperature.
Is it any different?

The vast majority of audio amplifiers are still voltage sources so do not short them out.

There are amps available that are current sources which can be shorted.
If fact, they have to have a complete very low impedance circuit to properly function.
We use these in our advanced power lab to simulate power system current transformers, however these are are not what you see as a typical audio amp. We use a specially modified version of the following amp.
http://www.aetechron.com/7782.html

[dorokusai]

Don't worry about it Luke, its normal. Now turn the music up and sit down.

[bigaudiofanatic]

^^^ What he said

[apphd]

I think what everyone is saying, and at least what I believe to be the case but don't know, is that even when using the pre outs of an AVR the entire amp section remains active. You just don't have the load on it you normally would have. This also (again not sure on this) means you can still over drive the AVR amps and induce clipping.

Hope someone in the know here can add more to this as I would like to know if my thoughts on this are correct as well.

[BlueFox]

I am using the Sony 7100ES with an external amp, and it gets as hot as when it was being used as an amp. This also surprised me as I thought it would not get hot, so I put my DVD player on top of it. Since the DVD player was a Sony 9100ES, the two looked good stacked in that manner, but when I happened to touch it and felt how hot is was I immediately removed it. So, I guess unless one gets a dedicated pre/pro heat is something AVR users have to accept.

[lukewayne]

Thanks for the input guys, i'll check the temp with no output.

im a bit sad that i can't disable the internal amplifier. :( oh well sounds better with the carvers, so i guess its worth it.