Powered sub as speaker B too much for vintage amp?

I added a power subwoofer to my vinyl set up and while it sounds great, I'm worried I'm now overtaxing my vintage amp.

My set up is a Technics SL-1200MK2 into a Denon PMA-501 amp that is powering two Elac Debut F5 floor-standing speakers (that I picked up from a fellow forum member.)

I decided to see if I could add a Cambridge Soundworks Bass Cube 8 that's part of my home theater system since that subwoofer has line level inputs (and since the Denon has no sub out).

After some online research, I wired up the the subwoofer to the speaker B inputs on the Denon with the intent to then run the amp on the "Speaker a + B" setting. Everything works great and sounds great BUT I noticed today that the amp was running super hot after listening to a couple of records, so I shut everything down.

Am I overtaxing the amp by trying to drive both the Elacs and the sub at the same time? Is there another way to do this?

Is this what a pre-amp is for?

 

How in the world did you connect speaker cables to the line level inputs on the sub?????

 

I'm not sure what your problem is, but either the speaker or line level inputs on a powered sub are a far easier load to drive than a conventional speaker, so overloading by adding a powered sub is unlikely.

 

Not that it makes it any more understandable, but the OP did say that "I wired up the the subwoofer to the speaker B inputs on the Denon."



Jeff

 

Consult the manual for the sub- look online if you need to. The sub does have high level speaker wire inputs so if you do it correctly there should be no issue.

 

Here.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/72NCrjU3gCL.pdf

 

You need to run the speaker out from the Denon to the speaker in on the subwoofer. And there's no need to use both A and B speaker outputs from the amp. Just hook all speaker cables to the A speaker output. This should not affect the amp any differently than a single pair of speakers.

 

Thanks all for the comments and forgive my noob-ness with this: I misspoke when I said I connected to line level inputs; I meant to say I wired the Denon via the speaker inputs on the BassCube.

I've been going in circles with a lot of this stuff and I'm wondering if I'm making this all more complicated than it has to be. My end goal is really to be able to enjoy listening to vinyl in a traditional 2 speaker set up (or 2.1 I guess in this case) and then also in the same room be able to have a modern 5.1 AV set up. The main reason I got this Denon was to try to have a more musical amp then just connecting a turntable to an A/V amp via phono pre-amp, which is what I'd done in the past. And the true rabbit hole that led me to getting this Denon was to have a dedicated mono switch as I was picking up more and more mono LPs (including that gorgeous Beatles Mono set.) And yes, I did pick up that Mono/Stereo switcher that a fellow forum member had made!

This all leads me to this question (which hopefully will be stated accurately):
can I use the Denon as a pre-amp and connect it to my new A/V receiver, a Yamaha RX-V485 via the analog audio inputs? The Denon has those metal u-connectors bridging the Pre-out and Main-in connectors. And then just have all the speakers coming off the Yamaha? Right now I have a speaker switch box so that the Elacs can be connected to both receivers.

 

Yes, you can do that. Use a high level input on the Yamaha like CD or something. Regular RCA cables. You won't hurt anything. Both volume controls will be active when you do this. I'd be tempted to set the Denon volume to where it's about the same as the TV etc and leave it there (mark it) and use the Yamaha's volume control exclusively.

 

Holy smokes, Batman, it actually worked!!

I pulled out the metal U-connectors to connect the pre-outs from the Denon to the sole analog audio input on the Yamaha, simplified the speaker set up so all just coming off the Yamaha and put on Love's Forever Changes on the turntable to test it out and Houston we have lift-off!!

So basically the Denon is a fancy-pants phono stage but I still like having the vintage big knob tone controls and my mono/stereo switch.

And now because I'm never satisfied, I'm going to hook up a Denon SACD player I bought and never used. It has optical audio out so I can add that as another input source into the Yamaha to take advantage of the 5.1 set-up. I have a few nice SACDs that I think I picked up from the Classifieds or Ebay (Elton John's Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Beck's Sea Change, Steely Dan Aja come to mind.)

Thanks all for your thoughts and advice on this.

 

Someone on another forum recommended I not use the pre-out and use the tape output instead so as to not introduce two sets of audio controls but that of course then minimizes a lot of what I liked about the Denon (mono switch, tone controls...)

 

Don't listen to them.

 

This person talked about the potential to overload or distort the signal but then that basically neuters the Denon.

Is there any danger with going pre-out to the Yamaha if I'm careful not to crank the volume on the Denon? I'd rather have the tone controls and mono switch at the ready with the Denon.