![]() One 4PDT switch or two DPDT switches (we recommend toggle switches)Ģ. It’s the more expensive one because of banana plug-ready connectors if you use spring-type connectors, it becomes very cheap.ġ. We’ve built two, the total cost is around $10-30, depending how cheap you can get the switch and what type of binding posts and enclosure you use. The simplest and cheapest option is to built a switch box using a 4PDT switch. But if you don’t want to spend $120 on a switch, you can built one yourself. Still, it is pretty much the only thing you can buy that will do the trick safely, so if you want a ready-made solution, that’s what we can recommend. Unfortunately that switch is quite expensive – it costs $120, which is a lot for a box with a few binding posts, passive switches and some wire. ![]() The only commercially available switch I know that does all that is Beresford TC-7220. There is one exception: for many tube amps it is very unhealthy to be on with no load (no speakers connected), so If you have a tube amp, better get another set of speakers. They can be on at the same time and you can switch between amps without having to turn them off. With a switch that meets all the above conditions, you can safely connect two amplifiers (or two receivers, or an amp and a receiver) to one set of speakers. Ideally it should not have anything else inside except binding posts, wires and the switch itself (no resistors, no protection circuits, impedance matching etc.). It needs to switch all 4 connections: L+, L-, R+, R- separately (no common ground).ģ. It needs to be a “break before make” type (break connection to one amp before making a connection to the other amp) to prevent both amps from being connected to each other even for a split second – it should make it absolutely impossible to select both amps at the same time.Ģ. And if you do that, it’s exactly like directly connecting two amps to one set of speakers – if both amps are on, at least one of them will get fried.īut we’re on the right track now: what you need is indeed a switch – but it has to be a specific type of speaker level switch in order to accommodate 2 amps. But most importantly, most (actually almost all) of these switches allow to select more than one set of speakers at the same time – which becomes selecting more than one input amp when you use the switch in reverse. Another problem is that many speaker switches have protection and/or impedance matching circuits, and those could also affect sound quality, so you do not want that. You do not want to have common ground between two amps, this could negatively affect their performance (and sound quality) and in some cases also case damage – there are amps that have fully balanced outputs and cannot have common ground between speaker connectors, for example some Class D amps. One is that they usually have common ground. ![]() There are three problems with the majority of speaker switching boxes. Is it possible to use a speakers selector switch in reverse for this? Well, not really. This exact thing happened to a friend of mine. Even if you think you’ll be extra careful and always remember to switch off one amp before switching on the other, and you actually are that careful, sooner or later someone else will try to listen to some music using your gear – and poof goes your nice amp. If you do that, and then turn on both amps, you will fry at least one of them, possibly both. So, again, is it safe to connect two amps to one set of speakers? If you do that directly, simply run speaker cables from both amps to your speakers – definitely not. Or you simply want to quickly compare 2 amps (like we do very often here at AR), A/B test them without having to make long pauses for switching the amps off, disconnecting speaker wires from one amp and connecting them to the other amp. You could have one big, powerful “performance” amp for active or loud listening, and another, smaller amp that draws much less power for background music and nighttime listening, when the family’s asleep and loud music is a no-no (like I do in another room). You could have a home theater receiver for movies and a dedicated stereo amp for music (like I do) and not enough space to accommodate two separate sets of speakers for each amp (or a wife, who vetoes this solution). There’s a numbers of reasons for trying to do that. Is it possible to use two amplifiers or receivers with just one set of speakers? This question gets asked a lot.
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