Adding headphone amp - connections?

[danr43]

I will be adding a Schiit Valhalla headphone amp to my 2-channel music system and I'm confused about the best way to connect the headphone amp. My source is a Mac mini connected via USB to a Schiit Bifrost DAC. From the DAC I connect to a NAD C356BEE integrated amp. From the pre-outs on the amp I connect to the line-in on my SVS sub to take advantage of the high pass filter (80 Hz) option of the sub. From the high pass-out connections on the sub I connect back to the main-in connections of the amp. This system sounds great (SVS Ultra bookshelf speakers) except when I plug my Sennheiser HD 600 headphones into the NAD amp the signal to my sub is still active so I can hear (and feel) the sub operating with headphones on. I can't turn the sub off when listening to headphones because it is carrying the main signal through the high pass filter. It seems I have two options: connect the Schiit headphone amp to the tape out on my amp or connect the headphone amp to the other set of pre-outs on the NAD amp. I don't know how either of those scenarios will affect my set-up using the SVS sub high pass filter. Can I make a connection that sends a full signal to the headphone amp and bypasses any processing by the NAD amp and the associated high pass filtering of the SVS sub?

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

This is what happens then you overly complicate things - Mac Mini 3.5mm "headphone" port is also optical toslink out (at least most of recent macs are built this way)
I would jet get rid of all the electronics you have mentioned and get a mid-tier AVR - it's will do proper bass management (aka cross-over, not a mere 80mhz hi-pass) and shutoff the rest of the speakers while headphones are connected (directly) to it
So connect toslink from mac mini to avr and from avr to speakers, sub and headphones

But back to your question, if you want your headphones (amp) to shutoff the rest of the speakers then attached - your only option is to connect them using 3.5mm to rca cable headphone out port on the NAD integ amp

 

[danr43]

I hear what you are saying regarding my complicated setup. It just seems like I'd be buying a lot of unneeded features with an AVR when all I need is to power my mac mini as a music server. And, you'd have to pry the Bifrost DAC from my cold dead hands! I could remove the sub's high pass from the setup and send a full signal to the bookshelf speakers. I haven't tried that since I've owned the Ultras. That would remove one major complication and may simplify the headphone amp connection.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

I hear what you are saying regarding my complicated setup. It just seems like I'd be buying a lot of unneeded features with an AVR when all I need is to power my mac mini as a music server. And, you'd have to pry the Bifrost DAC from my cold dead hands! I could remove the sub's high pass from the setup and send a full signal to the bookshelf speakers. I haven't tried that since I've owned the Ultras. That would remove one major complication and may simplify the headphone amp connection.

Dan, It's been discussed here to the death (separates vs avrs) - a) it's the economy of scale and b) good AVRs measure as good if not better than most separates
As for buying features you don't need - see (a) these features will not cost that much compared to comparable separates - in fact much less

The proper way to integrate sub with bookshelves is to cross-over the bass signal - aka filter stuff below (say 80hz) from bookshelves and filter stuff above same point from sub

 

[danr43]

Something to definitely consider. What would you start looking at in a "mid-tier AVR" that would be comparable in quality and power to my NAD?

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

Something to definitely consider. What would you start looking at in a "mid-tier AVR" that would be comparable in quality and power to my NAD?

For example :
DENON AVR-2113CI 7.1ch Networking Receiver w/AirPlay 3D Ready | Accessories4less