I have a Marantz-18EX driving a 5.1 setup with Paradigm 100 as front speakers. I just bought a Portal Panache amp, a 2-channel stereo amp. Since the bi-wire speaker cables from the Marantz have banana plugs at the speaker termination ends, I bought a new pair of speaker cable with spades at the speaker termination ends. I connected the new cable to the Paradigm speakers with the idea of listening to music with the Panache. That was straight forward enough I thought. However, the Marantz shorted out when I turned it on (while the Panache was off) and the Panache sounded terrible when I turned it on (while the Marantz was off). What is going on? What do I do wrong? I only turn on 1 amp at the time? Many thanks.
If you have both amplifiers connected to the one pair of speakers at the same time you will do damage to at least one of the amplifiers. Speakers can only have one amplifier connected at a time whether one or both are power up.