Audio Systems: stereo coinnection, power speakers, pre amp

Question
I have recently decided to play music from my PC from larger speakers. I have had success doing this in one room and have decided to run speaker wires to another room so that I can have music in both rooms at a time or only in one room or the other.

I have a Harman/Kardon stereo receiver that I plan to use because it will play in one or both rooms,

I am rereading the manual and notice that there is a hookup (pre out jacks) that can be used to connect a power amp.  I have one but don't understand the point of doing that.

Thanks for anything you can tell me.


Answer
Dear John,

Sounds to me like you've got a couple of options. First, use the H/K receiver to power speakers in two locations. The second is to run another set of speakers through a second amplifier/receiver. Here's how they work.

The H/K will run speakers in two locations, so there's not much to do except connect the speakers to the receiver.

A "pre-amp out" takes the signal from the receiver and sends it to another amplifier/receiver with a "pre-amp in" connection. You use the amplifier/receiver which is receiving the signal to power whatever speakers it has the capacity for. You use the "pre-amp out/in" option when you want to run speakers from the same source (in your case the H/K) to more locations than the source has the capacity to handle. So, say, you decide that you want the sound from the H/K to go to a third room. You'd simply run a "pre-amp out" from the H/K to a "pre-amp in" on another amplifier/receiver and connect your speakers to it. The "pre-amp out/in" connection is made with RCA interconnects. You can get pretty much any length at Radio Shack.

Good luck. And thanks for choosing allexperts.com!

Kindest regards,

Kevin