FG Chong Posted March 15, 2012 Posted March 15, 2012 Gd morning, My Cd player has both the balance and rca outputs, was wondering whether I can connect the rca output to my pre and the balance directly to the power amp (Cd player equip with a digital volume control). Not sure any bros tried this and share his view on this. Cheers
Doggie Howser Posted March 15, 2012 Posted March 15, 2012 Can. But why? Then how is your power amp hooked up to the preamp?
westendboy Posted March 15, 2012 Posted March 15, 2012 Someone once told me if u wanna go balanced, u need to go e whole nine yards - balanced from CDP to Pre and balanced to Amp. If RCAs are used at any one end, it negates e whole thing. Another bro also told me balanced is really industry standards and in our home hifi setups which don't really use such long cables, RCAs inter-connects are good enough
naglfar Posted March 15, 2012 Posted March 15, 2012 Yeah I agree with bro WEB - that was what I was told too. If you're really looking improvement is SQ, there are other aspects like room treatment, and optimizing your source, that you should be looking into. Just my $0.02 input :)
Doggie Howser Posted March 15, 2012 Posted March 15, 2012 Depends on the gear. When we tested the ARC Reference 5SE, there's a massive improvement going to a full balanced setup.
naglfar Posted March 15, 2012 Posted March 15, 2012 Ah ok...obviously I'm not talking about highend stuff. For something like ARC, I'm sure it's a different story ;)
FG Chong Posted March 15, 2012 Author Posted March 15, 2012 Can. But why? Then how is your power amp hooked up to the preamp? Appreciate your reply. My power amp has both the rca and balance inputs and can easily switch over via a switch at the back of the amp.
FG Chong Posted March 15, 2012 Author Posted March 15, 2012 Yeah I agree with bro WEB - that was what I was told too. If you're really looking improvement is SQ, there are other aspects like room treatment, and optimizing your source, that you should be looking into. Just my $0.02 input :) Appreciate your comments. My main intention is to do a A/B test on 1) bal vs unbal and 2) with & without the pre-amp.
Doggie Howser Posted March 15, 2012 Posted March 15, 2012 Ah ok...obviously I'm not talking about highend stuff. For something like ARC, I'm sure it's a different story ;) Actually, I feel it's quite common for gear that have balanced output to sound better with balanced connection. Don't have to be ARC though I understand their LS series which is more affordable does as well. Even my Bel Canto gear sounded much better with balanced connections
Doggie Howser Posted March 15, 2012 Posted March 15, 2012 Appreciate your reply. My power amp has both the rca and balance inputs and can easily switch over via a switch at the back of the amp. Ah common misconception. Very few power amps have DEDICATED dual inputs. Most have ONE input. The RCA/XLR switch merely changes the way grounding is done. Hooking both up means the ONE input is wired to TWO different connections. That's potential for damage (both CDP and preamp playing at the same time) and EMI/RF interference (where the long interconnect acts as an RF antenna). Plus, the CDP's digital volume control may not be better than an analog preamp. I've found using dedicated preamps adds to the soundstage size than a DAC/CDP with digital volume control. If you do want to go balanced, change the preamp
FG Chong Posted March 15, 2012 Author Posted March 15, 2012 Ah common misconception. Very few power amps have DEDICATED dual inputs. Most have ONE input. The RCA/XLR switch merely changes the way grounding is done. Hooking both up means the ONE input is wired to TWO different connections. That's potential for damage (both CDP and preamp playing at the same time) and EMI/RF interference (where the long interconnect acts as an RF antenna). Plus, the CDP's digital volume control may not be better than an analog preamp. I've found using dedicated preamps adds to the soundstage size than a DAC/CDP with digital volume control. If you do want to go balanced, change the preamp Appreciate your advice. I still like my pre and have no intention to change at this moment.
Doggie Howser Posted March 15, 2012 Posted March 15, 2012 Appreciate your advice. I still like my pre and have no intention to change at this moment. So why do you want to bypass the preamp?
FG Chong Posted March 15, 2012 Author Posted March 15, 2012 So why do you want to bypass the preamp? As mentioned in my other thread, I wanted to to a AB test on 1) bal vs unbal 2) with & without pre.
Doggie Howser Posted March 15, 2012 Posted March 15, 2012 AB is easy. Just swap out the RCA and put in the XLR. And repeat.
jimi1624705950 Posted March 15, 2012 Posted March 15, 2012 Appreciate your advice. I still like my pre and have no intention to change at this moment. You are happy with your pre but want to bypass it to use ur CDP pre to investigate the balanced option? As DH suggests if it is better or worse it will still not be v objective. Say it sounds better- is it because less interconnects, the CDP is a better pre, or is it because it's balanced? If its worse- is it because the CDPpre is no good, balanced cable, wrong no. input to output. Then you'd need a balanced pre to really see the difference. Think most CDP pre are not great, esp if digital vol control. Maybe 1 with an analog pre would be ok.
Audio Posted March 15, 2012 Posted March 15, 2012 No need to use ARC pre amp to prove that Balanced (XLR) sound sonically better than unbalanced (RCA) connection. So far, everything sounded better with balanced than unbalanced inteface on any equipment that offers both connections. Better to connect CD player to power amp...IMHO, yes. But results can be vary as it is very revealing. If your source is bad, you will hear it. Sometimes, need a preamp in between to "tone" down the playback to your liking. (Audio)
aquarius Posted March 15, 2012 Posted March 15, 2012 No need to use ARC pre amp to prove that Balanced (XLR) sound sonically better than unbalanced (RCA) connection. So far, everything sounded better with balanced than unbalanced inteface on any equipment that offers both connections. (Audio) +1 However the equipment must be a true balance design usually indicated with a higher output with balance vs unbalance.
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