RANT Wish budget -350$ receivers had pre-outs for front speakers

[PolkFan]

For real it drives me nuts lol that i see so many budget receivers come with pre-outs for Zone B(Which i will never use) like WTF why not allow that to be used for the front speakers instead?

Instead units are getting so expensive you basically have to spend 1000$ just to get that feature.

If any audio engineers or someone with more knowledge then me could explain why this is a thing i sure would be happy to know.

 

[Taddpole]

Not getting why you don't just use the zone B ones if you aren't going to use it for anything else.

 

[apgood]

For real it drives me nuts lol that i see so many budget receivers come with pre-outs for Zone B(Which i will never use) like WTF why not allow that to be used for the front speakers instead?

Instead units are getting so expensive you basically have to spend 1000$ just to get that feature.

If any audio engineers or someone with more knowledge then me could explain why this is a thing i sure would be happy to know.

It's purely a product differentiation thing. It's considered a more premium feature / differentmarket segment. Probably think if you have the space and a willing to pay for external amplification then you can spring extra for a higher end AVR or Pre-pro.

They need to justify the extra price of the higher end model. Especially if they measure the same.

Lastly, the lower end model probably have lower margins and every extra component cuts into the profit margins. Even if the extra cost is only a couple of dollars when you are talking about high volume products it is noticeable on the balance sheet. Especially if you are applying the same principle across multiple high volume products.

 

[JeffS7444]

Perhaps this speaker -> line-level adapter courtesy of Genelec will help?

Experience with preamp outputs built into receivers to date has been disappointing: There seems to be a tendency to cut corners and skip a proper line driver circuit, so the outputs may only be good for driving short cables. And more often than not, I've needed to use some sort of speaker->line conversion anyhow.

If anyone's struggling to read the resistor values, they are 1K ohm, 1/4 watt for upper resistor and 68 ohm, 1/4 for lower resistor for both of the circuits depicted.

 

[JeffS7444]

And for unbalanced setups, here's some more ideas:
https://www.epanorama.net/circuits/speaker_to_line.html
But such adapters are best avoided if your amplifier has bridged outputs in which the "-" terminals aren't all connected to the same ground. Some chip amps and higher-powered receivers are like that.

 

[Chrispy]

What you still expect 70s pricing of 2ch receivers?

 

[SynthesisCinema]

For real it drives me nuts lol that i see so many budget receivers come with pre-outs for Zone B(Which i will never use) like WTF why not allow that to be used for the front speakers instead?

Instead units are getting so expensive you basically have to spend 1000$ just to get that feature.

If any audio engineers or someone with more knowledge then me could explain why this is a thing i sure would be happy to know.

Well there is one. Yamaha TSR-700 which is identical model to RX-V6A (599$) but the TSR model is sold only in Costco for 399$.

https://usa.yamaha.com/products/audio_visual/av_receivers_amps/tsr-700/

https://www.costco.com/yamaha-tsr-700-7.1-channel-network-av-receiver.product.100686465.html

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...channel-4k-8k-dolby-av-receiver-review.17204/


TSR-700 back:

 

[raindance]

Marantz NR series has been providing a configurable preamp output for years.

 

[deprogrammed]

Marantz NR series has been providing a configurable preamp output for years.

I have an older one and it is left/right sub only. Not sure if the new ones have more though.

 

[raindance]

They're separate from the sub out. Left and right. Can be set as front. Works perfectly, I have had a couple of these receivers going back quite a long while.

 

[danzilla31]

One thing to note except for Denon a lot of the avrs that have them don't have the necessary voltage out to drive a lot of amps. I have a little onkyo I like I bought off of ebay for 500 and some change and it's preouts are only rated out for 1v

Some more expensive models are like that as well

 

[alex-z]

If you have decent soldering skills and more time than money you could technically add pre-outs to any receiver by tapping the signal before the amp stage.

Problem is, if the AVR amps are bad enough to warrant that, the internal DAC is probably not good either.

 

[mga2009]

Perhaps this speaker -> line-level adapter courtesy of Genelec will help?
View attachment 141726
Experience with preamp outputs built into receivers to date has been disappointing: There seems to be a tendency to cut corners and skip a proper line driver circuit, so the outputs may only be good for driving short cables. And more often than not, I've needed to use some sort of speaker->line conversion anyhow.

If anyone's struggling to read the resistor values, they are 1K ohm, 1/4 watt for upper resistor and 68 ohm, 1/4 for lower resistor for both of the circuits depicted.

Would this circuit provide a better signal than standard pre-outs?

It would be great if it could be measured by someone.

 

[JeffS7444]

Would this circuit provide a better signal than standard pre-outs?

In some cases, yes: If your preamplifier outputs are inadequate, your signal level may be very low and badly distorted.

 

[Head_Unit]

Yamaha TSR-700

Love the graphics next to the connections-they look cool!