I have an older 5.1 Yamaha receiver that has both pre out and multichannel in that I am using at the cottage. I would like to add a passive outdoor sub and was wondering if there was some way I could utilize the other 3 unused channels to power it?

I was thinking sub out to the rear channel input...do you think this would work?

I don't think that will work with your Yammy.

It would have to have Pre Amp Outs and Power Amp Inputs. If it has that, there will be little metal jumpers connecting the Ins and Outs. You can not access the amp channels via normal MC inputs.

There are some receivers that have them. Both of mine (Marantz SR96 and NAD 762) do.

Brian

Thanx for the reply...Yes it does have pre out but only the 6 channel direct input. Guess I am SOL

I have an older 5.1 Yamaha receiver that has both pre out and multichannel in that I am using at the cottage. I would like to add a passive outdoor sub and was wondering if there was some way I could utilize the other 3 unused channels to power it?

I was thinking sub out to the rear channel input...do you think this would work?Well, there are "clever" ways to loop certain pre-outs back into some unused analog inputs, and although, theoreticallly, it can work, it can also often introduce unwanted hum or buzz.

This can get very complicated very quickly and must be well-thought out. Does your receiver have any sort of Zone2 capability? I doubt it as you say it's only a 5.1 channel receiver.

How many channels of speaker-level inputs does the subwoofer have? If only a single pair of +/- inputs, you'd only be able to use one extra amp of the receiver to power it; either one of the a rear channel amps or the center channel amp. If it has two pair of speaker level inputs, you could use two of the receiver's unused amps to connect it. Does the sub have its own crossover control? How about its own volume control?

If you wanted to use the rear channels' multichannel analog inputs, you'd also have to connect your input device's front R/L outputs to the front R/L analog multichannel inputs, as you'd have to set the receiver to use its multichannel analog inputs in order to do this; it's not going to be possible with a digitally connected device or a device connected via an analog connection to, for example, the "CD" inputs. And unless your receiver can apply bass management to the multichannel analog inputs (doubtful), if you wanted to loop the receiver's sub out back into the rear channel inputs, then your input device would also have to have a bass-managed sub-out that is plugged into the receiver's multichannel analog inputs' sub input else there will be no signal coming out of the receiver's sub-out.

If the subwoofer has it's own crossover and volume control, a better idea would be to use the receiver's front R/L pre-outs to loop a full-range signal back into the extra amp channel's multichannel analog inputs, connect the sub via a speaker-level connection from the speaker outputs of that channel (or channels) to the sub's +/- speaker level input(s), and use the subwoofer's adjustable crossover to bass manage the full-range signal that it'd be receiving.

The input device would still have to be connected via its analog R/L outputs to the front R/L multichannel analog inputs. Then, if you set the receiver to use it's multichannel analog inputs, this could theoretically work. The front pre-outs' volume would be controlled by the receiver's volume control, and therefore the sub's volume would be coincidentally controlled. But if the subwoofer has only one pair of +/- speaker-level inputs, then you can't loop both the front R/L channel inputs into a single amp channel at the multichannel analog inputs because you can't use a Y-connecter to sum the front channel's R/L pre-outs.

If the sub doesn't have it's own volume control, this gets more complicated. The rear channel inputs of the receiver's multichannel analog inputs would have level adjustment capabilties, but only over a very narrow range.

But, as I said, these sort of "looping experiments" must be well-thought out and it's very easy to assume something that's not correct.

What are your sub's passive, speaker-level inputs and what are it's crossover/volume control capabilities?