Recommend a speaker "switcher" box?
The quick version is I want to be able to run either one amp or another through the same set of front speakers. I'll get into the reason why below if anyone cares, lol.
Found this on Amazon, it's affordable, has decent reviews, and looks like it would do essentially exactly what I want:
Would anyone recommend another specific product in a similar price range that they've used and liked?
Here's the reason, if you're interested:
I have a small-ish living room, only 12'x12' and I have a system that's pulling double duty for home theater and music; which is my turntable and CD player. My family also lives in a two-family house above my in-laws, so keeping bass manageable is imperative.
I love my front speakers for both movies AND music, and I'm satisfied with my AVR for movies for now.
The issue is I love using the sub for movies, watching Marvel movies and stuff like that with my kids I want that low end rumble on explosions, car crashes and all that stuff. I also love using the whole 5.1.2 setup with the height speakers, etc.
But for music I don't really want a ton of low end - what my fronts can give me on their own is plenty adequate for my tastes, and I only want to use the fronts by themselves, don't want to bring the sub, rears, and height speakers into it, or use any of the EQing that is important for movies so I can enhance dialog and all that.
Yes, my AVR has a "Direct" setting where I can play a record or CD with only the fronts, no sub, and it removes any EQing - and that's been pretty much sufficient for the last couple years.
The problem is I like to set the crossover fairly high for my fronts (and other speakers too) for movies, because I want most of the bass frequencies handled by the sub. But when I listen to music through the fronts alone I want them set to full range because I'm not going to use the sub. If I leave the front speakers full range all the time there's just too much bass overall for watching movies. But if I set the crossover where I want it for movies, my music sounds too thin.
So to cut to the chase I'm going to get a separate 2-channel amp JUST for music (I have a birthday coming) and keep my AVR for movies and need a device where either amp can output to the same front speakers.
If you read this far, my hat's off to you.