need more speaker power: pre amp or secondary amp?

[drkids]

I am trying to power two sets of outdoor speakers and a Bose 5 Series III speaker system (in door) with my tried and true 80's Sansui TA-500 but blow power fuses when I try to run all three sets with much volume. How do I put the outdoor speakers on a secondary amp and leave the Sansui as the source amp? The outdoor speakers are; Yamaha NS-AW350 (6 OHMs 40-130 watts and a set of Bose 151 Environ speakers. The Sansui amp/receiver only puts out 50 watts a channel @ 8 OHMS.

Can I use some sort of pre-amp or secondary amp? How would it connect to the Sansui? I see pre-amps selling for $39.95 to $1,400 US. Thanks for any info. JK

[Cal Weldon]

Is your problem that you are running the 3 sets of speakers in parallel and lowering your impedance too much maybe? If so you can get another amp or receiver and run the line out jacks (tape monitor) from the main amp over to the secondary. That way you would have independent control over the volume level of inside and outside speakers.

I've moved this over to Solid State in honour of your Sansui.

[AndrewT]

it is not the "only 50W" that is the problem.
The amplifier is designed to drive speakers of 8ohm or more.

Two sets of 6ohm speakers is equivalent to 3ohms.
Add a pair of 8ohms in parallel and you have the equivalent of 2.2ohm speaker.

You could series connect the 6ohm speakers to give an equivalent of 12ohm speakers. That combined with the 8ohm interiors will give an equivalent to 4.8ohm. Still too low.

You need an extra amplifier or two.
Keep the existing 8ohm amplifier for the interior speakers.
Buy a two or 4 channel amplifier for the outdoor speakers.
Do you have 4 outdoor speakers each rated at 6ohm?
Then buy four channels each rated for 6ohm or 4ohm.
Or
buy two channels each rated for 3ohm or 2ohm.