Preamp outs to ext. in? Possible?

[rockeratheart]

Is it possible to use a receiver's pre outs, splitting them to a seperate front amp and then to another receiver's ext. input? I had a big denon with damaged power amps fall in my lap and I would like to use it as a preamp. But I don't want to buy amps for my center and surounds. Can I use the small denon (one without preamp outs) to run the center and surrounds by coming in from the large, damaged denon through the ext. in? I know that's confusing, and i'm really stretching it. I don't know if the ext. in would work like that.

thanks for your time.

 

[rockeratheart]

probably not good.

I will have two volume controls then, won't I? Seems like this won't be an easy rig to run.

 

[MotorToad]

A lot of older design receivers have "main in" along with the preamp outs. My Carver and Advent receivers, and my '60s Fisher integrated amp all have this feature. (And wtf do I have all this ancient stuff sitting around?)

Edit: Oh, and even if you do wind up using "tape in" or some other normal input, as long as you have the volume at max and the tone contours flat it shouldn't be much of an issue for just the surround signal. I wouldn't expect it to be audio bliss, but it probably won't hurt much. And it'll make the room nice and warm in the winter, having all these components running.