It's a bit tricky to do. As pcreel points out, some receivers have pre-outs and corresponding main-ins (the RR2150 does this, as seen in the bottom middle of this picture ). Most receivers do not have this. People have used receivers' 5.1 or 7.1 direct inputs in order to get access to the receivers' amps - in this scenario, you connect the processor's pre-amp outputs to the 5.1 or 7.1 analog input of the receiver, set the receiver to that input, set the receiver to some mid-level volume position (and then leave it that way forever - don't want an extra volume control messing things up), and then connect speakers to the outputs that correspond to whatever channels of the 5.1/7.1 input were used. I wouldn't recommend it as a long-term solution, but it's been done before as a stop-gap measure.