Amp heats up and shuts off - Help!!

[jeskibuff]

How do you make these calculations Jeskibuff?

Well, simplifying it requires considering your speakers just pure resistance loads. In fact, there are crossovers involved which add impedance and capacitance to the mix. Putting two speakers in series is a simple calculation. Just add the impedances. In other words, a 4-ohm speaker in series with an 8-ohm speaker would present a 12-ohm load to your amp/receiver. Connecting them in parallel (as you have done with the A/B setup) requires a different calculation. It requires summing the inverses, then inverting the sum. Mathematically, you could represents this as 1/((1/A) + (1/B)) where A and B are the impedances of your A and B speakers. So in your case, you would add 1/4 to 1/8, then divide that into 1, giving 2.67.

Some how the Yamaha doesnt seem to be running too hot and its never tripped on the protection circuitry once since I have shifted to this configuration. Do you think this whole connection path somehow stumps the potection?

My best guess is that you may not be driving it hard enough (at loud volumes) to trip the circuitry and it's able to handle it. It's a gamble...the Yamaha MAY be able to handle it, or you MAY be stressing it a bit, reducing its usable lifespan. Maybe an email to Yamaha would get a better answer as to the detriments.

The sound card has a single mini phono plug at both ends that gets connected to the the auxiliary in of the Altec powered sub.

I assume you mean the sound card cable. Both ends of that cable are probably stereo connectors, which should look like this: . Note the two black bands on the metal tip?

From the Altec the standard Banana connector wires run one each from the sattelite speaker outputs to the Yamaha's Tape In inputs.

And you want to disconnect this PRONTO. Speaker outputs are way too high for low-level inputs. You could do permanent damage to the input circuitry on the Yamaha.

What do you suggest as the solution to this problem. I have already tried connecting the sound card out directly to the Yamaha with "mini phono at one end and two male RCA plugs at other end - and like I told you - it just delivers a very low sound output from only the left channel speaker.

Well, this connection is what I wanted to find out more about...from the sound card to the Yamaha...forget the Altec for now. I suspect that you may have some mono connectors or the wrong "Y" adapter. Here's what a mono plug looks like: . Notice the single black band on the metal tip?

Do you suggest if all these methods are not working - i better revert back to using the computer-Altec and the Yamaha as two seperate units with no interconnectivity - rather than end up with a burnt Amp?

You SHOULD be able to make the connection properly. If you're getting stereo output with your Altec speakers, you should get a good stereo input to your Yamaha.