Combining Home Cinema and HiFi Setups

bucks73

Just wondering if anyone has an idea if this can be done.

At the moment I have a home cinema setup in one room and a hifi setup in another room but I am moving soon and want to combine both.

My home cinema uses a Pioneer VSX-D912 receiver (probably upgrading to Onkyo 606) with Mission speakers including two M72s as front speakers.

My hifi setup has a CD player and PC going to a Cambridge Audio A5 amp and then two Mission M74 speakers.

I will be getting rid of the M74 speakers so will it be possible to use the Cambridge amp and the Pioneer/Onkyo receiver with the same set of front Mission M72s? Or am I better off just using the receiver for use with the CD player and forget about having a musical setup?

Cheers in advance.

viperirl

A dedicated stereo amp (such as your Cambridge Audio) will be far better at music than any AV receiver unless you go to extreme high end stuff from the likes of Classe or Krell for example.
Many people have their hifi and home cinema setups integrated. You should be able to do the same with yours if:

a. Your Pioneer has pre-outs on the back for the front right & left channels.
b. Your Cambridge Audio has a set of pre-input terminals on the back.

Connect the preouts from the Pioneer to the pre-ins on the Cambridge Audio amp. In this way, the Cambridge Audio amp will always be driving your front speakers both when listening to music or home cinema. (Leave the cd player connected to the Cambridge Audio amp). The Pioneer will be driving only your centre and rear speakers.

Not sure though if the Onkyo 606 has preouts. I think that only the 705 upwards has preouts in order to connect external amps/power amps.

Red Alert

I often wish there was an input which didn't obey the master volume control on the stereo, because otherwise you'll get a fright when you flick from home cinema back to CD.