scott_home Posted January 27, 2012 Share Posted January 27, 2012 hi all, I am looking for a new receiver. Probably Harman Kardon 3490. The HK 3490 has a set of preouts and they are hardwired to the amp in. I have a pair of speakers in the living room and a pair in the patio. How do I add an external amp to power the living room speakers while using the receiver to power the patio speakers? I am also interested in Onkyo TX-8050 (network stereo receiver). The Onkyo has more preouts and a zone 2 control. I will eventually add an external amp to power my living room speakers. Is one better than the other if they are used as a preamp? Thanks, Scott Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bompata Posted April 5, 2012 Share Posted April 5, 2012 I have the same question. I think it will work to connect the external amp to the Tape/ CDR Out. The owner's manual says that "... A signal is always available at the Tape / CDR Outputs ... ". I guess I will have to give it a try. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bompata Posted April 5, 2012 Share Posted April 5, 2012 Yep. The Tape Out functions like a Pre-Amp Out. I have been using HK 3490's (amplified) Speaker A output to power a series of speakers in the house and (amplified) Speaker B output to drive a pair of high power speakers outside. Now I will use Tape / CDR Out to the 5.1 home theater system to listen to the same music in the home theater room. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jhoak Posted April 5, 2012 Share Posted April 5, 2012 I have a HK 3490. Love it. There are a couple of ways to do what you're talking about. There are "pre-out / main-in" jumpers on the back panel. If you're going to be driving a basic power amp without a volume control you'll need a pair if Y cables (2 male RCA to 1 female RCA) and replace the jumpers. You'll end up with a pair of female RCA jacks that you will then connect to the external amp. This will allow the volume control on the 3490 to also control the volume for the remote zone. In my case I have an amp with volume control in the garage and I simply ran a RCA cable pair from one of the tape-out connections to the garage amp. It works quite well for me. In addition I have a Niles 6-pair speaker switch which I have connected to the "B" speaker connections on the 3490. It in turn feeds 4 other pairs of speakers scattered around the house. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
biglaz Posted April 6, 2012 Share Posted April 6, 2012 Just a reminder the tape out are attenuated. Therefore, the external amp has to have gain controls. sit back and listen! biglaz Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bompata Posted April 7, 2012 Share Posted April 7, 2012 Good point. I connected the Tape Out of the HK 3490 to the Aux input of a Bose Lifestyle 8 home theater speaker system. That I am aware of, this has no gain control. But the volume control seemed to work acceptably. What are the chances that the attenuation of the HK 3490 Tape Out is set just right to function as an Aux input to the Bose system? By the way, why isn't there a standard that fixes the attenuation of all outputs at the same level (so that there is no need for gain control)? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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