I have a very simple installation that really has me baffled. I am adding a couple of speakers to another room to play audio via the Zone 2 out of an old Yamaha AVR. The unit is a Yamaha Rx-V2095. In the new room I have installed an inexpensive Lepai LP-168HA 2 channel amp. I am not using the sub base outputs of that amp.
I set up the Yamaha and tested the Zone2 out by using a simple set of PC internally amplified speakers and it works fine. I can control the volume and switch inputs as expected with my remote. Now that the Lepai amp has arrived, I connected it up and NOTHING! Thinking that it might be a defective amp, I drove the phone jack input from my cellphone and it works perfectly driving the new speakers nicely. This made me wonder if the RCA inputs were the problem so I connected the phone to the RCA inputs (they are actually in parallel with the phone jack input) and they worked fine as well.
I connected my scope up to the inputs to observe the signals from the cellphone and from the AVR and found that the AVR can drive every bit as well as the phone and more if I want to. I set the volumes of the phone and the AVR to give me the same peak to peak voltage (in case I was overdriving the amp) and still nothing on the Lepai using the Zone2. What the heck?
Again, the Zone2 output is identical in amplitude to the phone and I can drive a separate pair of speakers with built-in amp off the Zone2 out to verify the signal is good. Connect it to the Lepai and I get nothing! Both inputs of the Lepai play the phone through the new speakers just fine.
Any thoughts from you folks that are much smarter at this than me???