Well he did say my system is really top notch even without tuning as it is.

I better bring out my umbrella... I am waiting for someone to throw water at me for my views. 

hifi people have different believe bro.That person is pascal right?its been along time haven't seen his post.

bro...one fine day can i come listen to your system.....i can say i am pretty noob into getting HT tuned right....

I think I know what you actually want. I did almost the same thing previously but I only used a Hegel H300 Int. Amp direct out to the 2 Front floor-stands, no power amp used.

I think this is what you want as shown by my poorly drawn diagram below...

[attachmentid=7366820]

I do understand why you would want your other sources such as the CD player and Turntable to connect directly to your Int. Amp because obviously the sound quality is much better than your AVR loh. Also, you can only connect your Bluray Player via HDMI to your AVR due to HT decoding (DTSMA, Dolby TrueHD, etc).

If you connect the AVR Pre-Out (Front L and R) directly to your Power Amp, you will get much better sound quality for your HT... BUT... you have to connect your CD Player and Turntable to the AVR which is okay but not as good compared to using your Int. Amp.

Aaah.... now you want to squeeze the best out of your system by adding in the Int. Amp specifically for your CD Player and Turntable. Fine, no problem... just disconnect the AVR Pre-Outs to the Int. Amp but you will not be able to use your Front speakers for HT!! IF you throw away the Int. Amp and use the AVR directly connect to your Power Amp, then your CD Player and Turntable needs to be connected to the AVR which will not get better sound quality compared to the Int. Amp, hehehe. You also want to "share" your Power Amp for all your sources (Bluray Player, CD Player, Turntable, etc) to just 1 pair of Front Speakers!!

WOW... pretty complicated and same for me too because I did it in a similar way.

Phew... after all my complicated explanations, the connection diagram above should tell the whole story better.

Its time to answer your question on whether you can do it that way.

Mmm... you can BUT do remember that BOTH your AVR and your Integrated Amp do have Volume Controls.

Normally, when we connect a Pre-Amp/Integrated Amp "Pre-Outs" to a Power Amp, its the Pre-Amp/Int. Amp that controls the audio volume so the Power Amp don't have such volume control.

In your situation, I think there should be an issue when both your AVR and Int. Amp can control the audio volume!!! The audio loudness will drop significantly so you need to push your Int. Amp Volume to maximum so that your AVR volume control can adjust the "correct" volume for all your 7 speakers. You just cannot use your AVR volume as maximum to allow the Int. Amp to control because your centre and other speakers will BOMB! There is a danger when you set your Int. Amp to max volume for playing blurays from AVR and you forgot to turn the Int. Amp volume down to play your CDs... your speakers will go BAM, POW, crackkk!

Here is what happened to my relative early this year... his connection is slightly different as he uses 2 bookshelfs and 2 floorstands speakers. He has an Onkyo AV Pre-Amp so he needed a 5 channel Power Amp to connect (not using 7.1). Unfortunately, he only have a 3 channel power amp and a Denon AVR !!! What he did was use the 3 channel Power amp for his 2 Fronts and 1 Centre, then used the Denon Pre-In for his 2 Surrounds. When he connected his Onkyo 2 Surround Pre-outs to his Denon AVR 2 Pre-ins, he had to turn up his Denon AVR to MAXIMUM in order to hear the proper surround loudness!! Unfortunately, turning volume to max is actually pushing the AVR internal "power amp" circuits to work very hard and at the same time, its internal "pre-amp" is still running. I would expect that heat issues for his Denon AVR should be a problem. I told him this at that time and I was not surprised when he told me that his Denon AVR feels very hot so he sold off his AVR and 3 channel Power Amp and then got a 5 Channel Power Amp for all his speakers!

The connection diagram below shows my previous setup before I sold off my Denon AVR-4520 and Hegel H300...

[attachmentid=7366822]

My Denon AVR only have 150watts @ 8 ohms so I wanted to make use of my Hegel Amp 250watts @ 8 Ohms which has better power and better audio quality for my 2 Front Floor-stand speakers. Similar to you, I only have 1 pair floorstands to use so I do need to "share" them with my AVR and Hegel, hehehehe. If I disconnect my AVR to my Hegel, I need another pair of speakers. If I throw away my Hegel, I lose the audio quality of a very good Hegel Int. Amp. Of course the best solution for me is to buy another pair of floorstands or bookshelves which are more suited for HiFi listening BUT BUT... my room is just not big enough to accommodate so many of my AV/HiFi gear plus speakers, not possible so I had to "share" my floorstands. That's why I had to compromise on buying a pair of floorstands which has the "best" overall audio quality for both HiFi and HT eventhough there is no such thing loh.

I bought my Denon AVR first, then I thought of getting an Int. Amp for my HiFi needs BUT I also need my 2 Front floorstands to "somehow" be shared with both the AVR and Int. Amp. Then I thought of this *ah-hem* "brilliant" idea. The solution is an Int. Amp with HT (Home Theatre) Bypass Inputs which allows it to function as a Power Amp only by bypassing or switching off its internal pre-amp circuitry so that its Volume Control is disabled AND the output is fixed at near to 100%.

I found what I needed in the Hegel H300 Integrated Amp which has a HT Bypass Input. When I play my blurays, I switch my Hegel knob to "HT Bypass" and woalah, my Hegel behaves like a Power Amp with the volume set to 85%. When I play my CD player, I switch my Hegel knob to "CD" input and my Hegel now goes back to normal integrated amp with the volume back to normal, hehehe.

I upgraded to solely use a much better AV Controller (Pre-Amp) as the main central unit for ALL my sources from DAC to Turntable to CD/SACD to Blurays so I sold off my Hegel H300. Then I added in a few Power Amps for my various speakers.

I don't actually know whether your Int. Amp can produce audio that is powerful enough when you turn its volume not to max. If you can get the proper loudness for your blurays, then your Int. Amp should be good enough for your purpose. BUT if you needed to push your Int. Amp to max volume, then you may have overheating issues or mmm... maybe audio clipping. You can try, and maybe its all good for you but ... I will just full stop here.



My personal unqualified view is to change the Int. Amp to one that has Home Theatre Bypass which should properly fit your needs here but I am not a pro in this so my views may not be correct. If you cannot afford to change the Int. Amp or still prefer to use the Int. Amp because of its excellent audio quality, then obviously the "replacement upgrade" will be impossible.

I hope my comments and views here helped you in some way. As usual, if anyone finds any errors here, please do correct me. No problem.

Pondering on Ascend Acoustics Sierra Towers w/RAAL tweeters. Why you suck so much ringgit???!!

That was why I mentioned adding wooden/chipboard wall with rockwool inside which is so much easier to sound-proof. Of course not perfect but at least its better than just using acoustic foams attached to the wall because such foams are not good in isolating sound from "escaping" out. Rockwool is much better than acoustic foams and more easily available. Of course vacuum is THE best but implementing it is never easy loh. The "container" must be hard enough to withstand outside air pressure and must be hard to leak to last many many years. Once inside two walls, its NOT easy to repair any puncture and leaks to get back the vacuum. If there is a very very slight leak, you won't know whether that panel is no longer vacuum after many years. We need to put many smaller blocks of such vacuum panels inside the wall so that the container can stand the outside air pressure. We just cannot build a single 9ft X 10ft container for the same sized wall because its very difficult for such large sized container material to withstand the outside pressure on such big area. For a single very large sized container to withstand the pressure, the inside must have numerous small internal "bars" to hold the container wall to prevent it from being pressed thin or flat.

Actually I did spoke to a few contractors and all told me that it can be done but its very difficult to do it AND its very expensive. I don't know how far its true but those contractors said that its a job that is NOT for DIY AND also, for safety reasons, we are required by law to get an approved architect plan to be submitted to the local town council for approval. They didn't say it and I didn't ask so I think that we "may" probably need to get a Certificate Of Occupation again from the Housing Developers (Control and Licensing) Board. I am only guessing about the government requirements. Of course we can just choose to do it and don't care whether there is any violation or not so its a "risk" loh. It may be similar to converting a garage into an additional room. What I do suspect is that there will be a lot of inconvenience.

For hakawei question, I think suggesting using vacuum as a possible way will serve to only make it unnecessarily complicated and its the least likely solution for him to do it. Rockwool is definitely not good enough when compared to a vacuum but its better than nothing because using vacuum only creates more other problems to solve and expensive too. I think many of us already know that vacuum is the best but we just never think about it straightaway. I believe that many of us, including myself, did wonder at one time or another, on how it can be done and I am not surprised why many just gave up on this idea.

Simply saying that Rockwool is just "noise reduction" and suggesting using a vacuum without suggesting the best possible method to achieve it will not help to answer his question, and in fact may probably cause even more questions from him. I am talking about the most feasible way to do it, not about the most difficult way to get the best sound-proofing.

I have seen on many many websites and forums on building HT rooms where all of them uses rockwools, reflective metal sheets, sand, and various other "materials" inside two wall layers to sound-proof. Maybe I missed it but I have not yet find any info in the internet that shows me how to construct "vacuumed walls". I appreciate it if you can give me the links.

Here is a link that says something about using vacuum as sound-proofing...
http://www.noisestopsystems.co.uk/how-to-soundproof-a-room
... Read the last sentence in the title "No one will hear you scream in space". It reads... "As this would not be possible use the following techniques to effectively soundproof a room.".. which means that the writer of that article suggested other methods as explained in the rest of that article. So, is that writer correct to say that its not possible to use vacuum? Mmm... I don't know.

Eventhough I won't do it (not possible) and to satisfy my own curiosity, I am doing some research and still thinking on how to do DIY in the cheapest way. Its good that you mentioned vacuum because you have opened up my curious mind again after forgetting about it for many years. Thanks. Mmm... just for fun, I will probably try to ask people who does Home Theatre Room projects to get their viewpoints. I have asked contractors before but haven't ask such Home Theatre Pros before, hehehe. My HT room will never be able to use "vacuumed walls" because I think its just too small.

Oh... almost forgot... what happens when one of your family members "forgot" about the hidden vacuum inside the wall and hit a long nail to the wall to hang a big poster? BANG? POW? Will it sound just like hitting a nail directly to the car tyre? Mmm... that part of the wall will literally collapse with a big hole appearing. Your neighbours will rush out when they heard a loud explosion wondering what happened. If I am sitting there, I may get a heart attack.

This, +100000000:
How many times have you seen people with $10,000 speakers, $15000 amps, $5000 speaker cables/power chords but have next to no room treatment? Plenty, I tell you.

Yes I'm exaggerating the money point, but seriously... instead of all that thousands of dollars spent on pointless power cables, use 1% of that and go get some diffusers/foams/treatments instead. Instant difference instead of trying to psycho yourself to hear a difference.

There are sooo many materials to read regarding to "expensive vs cheapo" cables such as power cords, speakers cables, digital and analogue cables, etc, etc. My personal belief... Its a time immemorial ongoing debate ever since the word HiFi was invented.

Whichever is your camp, right or wrong... please try NOT to use profanity here. I want the kids to learn about the word "profanity" and how to avoid it but not on how to use them. I am sure people here don't use profanity, am I correct?  I don't take any offense but its not necessary and needless in making any statement or opinion.

Here are 2 articles about speaker cables for people to "argue on" !! Oops.. sorry... "argue on" are the wrong words... "think about" would be more appropriate.

https://www.lifewire.com/speaker-cable-differences-3134603

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news...e-of-money.html

http://machinedesign.com/blog/5-myths-about-speaker-wire

Regards.

   

Import duty + GST.

Just curious if send in from sing got no import tax ???

Riiight...? Land of songlap.
A pair of full sized towers + center is impossible to escape without tax la...