Separate analog and digital systems into the same speakers?

[Feltran]

I searched a little bit and couldn't really find a satisfying answer to this.

Right now I have my Martin Logans hooked up to a 5 channel home theater system that's all digital. I'm planning on adding a turnable, and I think ideally I'd like to get a separate preamp & amp for the analog side, but run it into the same front channel speakers that are used for the home theater system. Is that really feasible? Or would I just be a lot better off hooking the turntable into phono input on the A/V processor?

 

[roni44]

if you can go separate that would be the most ideal, look for preamp with AV/HT bypass, and make sure your HT Receiver or pre amp has pre-out.

 

[amey01]

I searched a little bit and couldn't really find a satisfying answer to this.

Right now I have my Martin Logans hooked up to a 5 channel home theater system that's all digital. I'm planning on adding a turnable, and I think ideally I'd like to get a separate preamp & amp for the analog side, but run it into the same front channel speakers that are used for the home theater system. Is that really feasible? Or would I just be a lot better off hooking the turntable into phono input on the A/V processor?

You really can't do this without a switch of some sort in the speaker line to select amplifiers. Which you will probably agree will somewhat negate the advantage of doing this in the first place. So you really need two systems, or manually make the connections.

 

[twich54]

tell us a little more about the AVR your using ......

 

[JonFo]

It's not worth the complications, just plug it into the phono inputs on the 3801.
Or for extra credit, use a dedicated phono pre-amp and use one of the regular aux ins. But the Denon had decent phono pre-amps. At least the one on my AVP A1 was super-clean.

I'd suggest any money be put into some room treatments, as those will deliver much more significant improvements. I mean, orders of magnitude better.

 

[18000rpm]

I have an excellent way to do this.

I'm using a Bryston amp which has both single-ended and balanced inputs. My home theater system connects to the amp via single-ended inputs, while my 2-channel system connects to it via balanced inputs.

I even have a Descent subwoofer connected to both - the HT system uses the LFE input while the 2-channel system uses Left/Right inputs into the subwoofer. The subwoofer responds to both.

Everything "just works", all I have to do is switch the input selector behind my amp to switch between HT and 2-channel systems.

 

[zigman]

I agree with @Ronni44, this is simplest and cleanest way if your AVR supports pre out. You definitely want to separate out the analog section to get the best sound out of the record player.

I had this similar setup, only using a digital not analog source. I ended up using a dedicated pre/pro but I started with a Denon AVR using the pre out to a Luxman integrated with a "Separates" button which disconnect the preamp section and let the AVR use the amp for L/R.

I don't know which ML speaker you have, but they will most likely open up quite a bit with a dedicated amp as well. AVRs don't have much power and aren't really meant to go below 4 ohms (at best). It will also give more power reserves to your other speakers.