Sherwood RD-6502 for active speaker system

[jamikl]

I am building some active open baffle speakers which I wish to be actively crossed over.
I am short of amps and noticed that the Sherwood RD-6502 has separate inputs to the
power amps. Or at least I think it does. I thought people on this forum may know more
about this amp than some of the other DIY forums. I would like to know if my assumption
about direct inputs is correct and what is the sound quality of this unit. I am more interested in the emotion of listening to music than real critical analysis of what could be better although
I do like a good sound stage. The unit is available for $169.00 Aus. I could not even build chip amps for this price. Any help greatly appreciated. jamikl

[Anthony]

I don't know much about this unit, but Receivers with "jumpers" to a power amp stage have intrigued me for a while. I have a Marantz unit with a similar setup and wondered if I could use it in a similar manner. I never got around to trying.

In theory, it would just be a gain stage that goes straight to the speaker terminals, but who knows with these units. it may pass through the volume control or some other tone control first. You would think that would all be preamp, but again, who knows?

As for quality, I have read great things about Sherwood amps and preamps. They are in that nice market between Sony/JVC/HTIB and Rotel/Parasound/Marantz.

For that price, it would be worth trying it out, even if it didn't end up working. You could always power a garage/shop/office system with it!

Good luck.

[jackfish]

Those inputs are for connecting a source that produces 5.1 output to the receiver. It seems these inputs are not appropriate for connecting your active crossover speakers. The input sensitivity of these connections at 47 kΩ are 200 mV.

[evilskillit]

I have an Arcam integrated. I forget the model. I can go check later, right now I'm busy. It has a switch inside that can be used to bypass the integrated preamplifier. As far as I can tell it totally bypasses the volume/preamplification circuit and all balance and tone controls as none of the inputs other than the dedicated amp input work and none of the tone control or volume controls do anything.

That may not be true in all units, the Arcam was a pretty nice integrated in its day, but it is probably true of most of them that are any good and offer that feature. The when in this mode the output is somewhat closely matched to my Parasound HCA-1000 power amp except for the fact that the Parasound is a higher wattage unit.