Have a Denon head unit. has the 4 patch cable jacks... L/R for F/R and a pre amp out...

If I wanted to keep this unit and run 4 speakers and a seperate sub (may go 5 channel amp) generically how would I wire this?

 

Sounds like you have 1 front/rear rca output and 1 sub output.

Most 4 channel amps only require a single rca input to run all 4 channels on the amp. There should be a switch that says 2 ch/4 ch. In your case, you would choose 2 ch because you only have 1 RCA available. If the amp did not have this feature, then you would need to get a pair of Y splitter cables that will give you 4 outs instead of 2.

The sub preout is simple, so I won't go into that....

 

Ill have to look at the manual again but visually there where four patch cables out the back, 2 red 2 black i think, should be for F/R L/R, and the book said a preamp output.. is this the same as a sub out? or ina 5 channel amp can the pre amp out of my head unit be used to provide the Sub input on the amp?

Thanks though for the info before and any other help you may give .:thumbup:

 

Yeah, you basically have 2 sets. They are both pre-amp ouputs. Just use one for the sub and one for the fr&rr. Your amp should have a low pass filter/switch to allow only the lows.