For some time now I have wanted to add a stereo pre-amp to my system strictly for music. Is there a way to insert a pre-amp running through the 990 but by-passing it? I currently run a phono pre-amp hooked up through the "aux" on the 990. Could I run the stereo pre-amp through the same connection? Appreciate any advice or insights.

Don

Some stereo pre-amps offer a "home theater bypass" mode that allows them to be located between the 990 and the power amp. This approach offers the cleanest and simplest signal path for the analog audio sources that are likely to be paired with a stereo pre-amp like this.

Take the left and right line outs of the 990 and plug them into a line input of your stereo preamp. When listening to movies select this input and when listening to music only, select whatever stereo source you want. For calibrating the system, set the stereo preamp volume to a repeatable position such as 2:00 o'clock and then do a normal calibration on the 990. When listening to movies always return the stereo preamp's volume control to this reference position. For music listening you can change it to whatever you want of course.

This type of setup completely bypasses the 990 when listening to music only.

Gonk, Altec, Thanks for the responses - I'll look into both these options.

Don

Those are actually somewhat the same option, just that the preamps like gonk describes bypass their own volume knob when the HT bypass is selected. Where they do not have that option, you have to have that reference Altec mentions.

I have one of the former with a phono preamp as well that I use to use with my 950, before it moved off to a music only system.

BB