Onkyo SR-503 receiver...what to do with Marantz MA500 powerblock THX amps??

[jazzdude1]

hi! I have a little home theatre with 100" screen and decent speakers and sub connected to my Onkyo SR-503 receiver...i was given some Marantz MA500's for free..
is there anyway to connect them to this receiver??

..if not, is there any receiver that is decent around the $500 and under level which would allow me to do it??
do people generally use these kind of external amps to boost the front mains or centers?? or surrounds??

just trying to figure out what I can do with these babies...I read that a lot of people do say they are pretty good!

Thanks in advance!!

[Mr Peabody]

In order to hook up the power amps you would need a receiver with preamp outputs. You would hook your main speakers to the power amp and then run RCA cables from the receiver's preamp output to the amps inputs. Using external power amps is very popular. The mains are the most popular and then some use multichannel amps to get a boost to all channels, especially nice if you listen to 5 channel music.

Yamaha tends to have nice sound and usually offers preamp outputs.

[jazzdude1]

thanks for the response!
...i did happen to read about some people using a "TAPE OUT/MONITOR" RCA output on some receivers as a PRE OUT??!!! would this work at all with my receiver??
or do i absolutely have to buy a new one?
...my main purpose would be to incorporate the power amps into my 7.1 system for movie viewing.

Thanx!

[Mr Peabody]

NO, DO NOT USE THE "TAPE OUT". You have no way to control the volume, or, in other words that path bypasses the volume and tone controls, so your amp will run wide open. Not too good for the speakers or your ears :) You might want to just buy a decent used preamp and start a 2-channel system. Unfortunately, if your current receiver doesn't have preamp outputs you can't do what you want. I have heard of step down devices that would allow you to use speaker terminals but even if you found such a device it would really defeat the purpose as i suspect it would introduce a host of nasties into your signal.

Those amps are worth keeping and using, what a friend you have.
BTW, welcome to AR.

[blackraven]

If you want to stick with Onkyo, take a look at the TX-SR707 as it has pre amp outs to each channel and will do the job.

http://bountii.com/product-3649-onkyo-tx-sr707-7-2.html?gclid=CPu806fq4qMCFcEz5wodMBW7aA

However, the only benefit that I can see in using the Marantz amps is for 2 channel music. What is the rest of your gear like?

[jazzdude1]

the rest of gear consists of
Athena tower speakers for mains...then 2 smaller Athena's for side surrounds and 2 smaller Athena's for back surrounds...Athena center speaker
sub is a BIC H-100 500watt powered
-Optoma projector
-100" screen
-V inc BRAVO D1 DVD player

....I also have a CARVER CM-1090 I got with the Marantz amps...currently have it connected in another room to some B&W speakers...maybe i could add the CARVER to the home theatre system?!

my friends will think i'm nuts...they already thought i was nuts in terms of the sound quality when we cranked up SAVING PRIVATE RYAN! :)

just don't wanna waste these Marantz amps!
:)

[Mr Peabody]

Bud, no matter what the power amp is you will have the same issue. If you didn't want to upgrade the receiver at this point just hang on to the Marantz until you do upgrade. Let me know where they are giving that stuff away :)