Stupid question of the day.

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Guess I just need to wait until the new Preamp hits in about two weeks.

Ooh, so the preamp has been chosen. I assume the Parasound Halo?

 

[ematthews]

Wouldn't this work if I just wanted to use it for about two weeks. Again, I would need two, correct?

Amazon.com: Monoprice 107186 RCA Plug to 2 RCA Jack Splitter Adaptor, Gold Plated: Electronics

 

[ematthews]

Ooh, so the preamp has been chosen. I assume the Parasound Halo?

It's half the price of the Marantz...And I already have a separate HT set up in my living room. This is for music only system... I do indeed plan on a new Audio Video room in the near future.
At that time I will go the all digital route like you and a few others have done.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Wouldn't this work if I just wanted to use it for about two weeks. Again, I would need two, correct?

Amazon.com: Monoprice 107186 RCA Plug to 2 RCA Jack Splitter Adaptor, Gold Plated: Electronics

Yes, any 2 of those Y-cable adapters would work.

But you can do without the Subs for only 2 weeks.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

It's half the price of the Marantz...And I already have a separate HT set up in my living room. This is for music only system... I do indeed plan on a new Audio Video room in the near future.
At that time I will go the all digital route like you and a few others have done.

The Parasound Halo is nice. For 2.1Ch Pure Direct, you won't do better than that.

 

[ematthews]

Ooh, so the preamp has been chosen. I assume the Parasound Halo?

A little Silver Halo will add some nice contrast to my rack!

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

A little Silver Halo will add some nice contrast to my rack!

You're living the high life now.

 

[markw]

LOUD!!! Ha Ha... Before the volume was always up around 12 o clock... With he ATI. I haven't had it higher than 9:00 and it's loud. And this is without the sub running... BIG American Power AMP.... I think it's going to be nice when I am done with it all.

Just so you know that's more to the different gains of the power amps, not their overall output. What you're experiencing here is akin to how Howard Wolowitz describes the advantage of Bernadette having an abnormally tiny hand.

 

[slipperybidness]

LOUD!!! Ha Ha... Before the volume was always up around 12 o clock... With he ATI. I haven't had it higher than 9:00 and it's loud. And this is without the sub running... BIG American Power AMP.... I think it's going to be nice when I am done with it all.

The position of the volume knob is pretty much arbitrary. It's the gain that is important.

Edit: markw beat me to the punch!

 

[slipperybidness]

Okay for short term. But for long term, especially for guys who want the "shortest path" and buy high-end amps and pre-pros, do they really want a sub to be doing all that?

Most of us just want that sub to do one thing only - and that is to produce tight punchy bass. Not take in the main front Left and Right channel signals and reroute the signals to the amp.

I mean how "clean" are those cheap electronics on the subs?

Those Rythmik subs have top notch electronics.

Brian is both an acoustic engineer and an electrical engineer out of USC, so I trust that he knows what he is doing.

 

[ematthews]

I know about the gain.. Was just commenting on what was going on. And I also know that when I hook up the pre with XLR the gain goes down to 28db... A watt is a watt too. And 200 is a lot more than 70.

 

[slipperybidness]

I know about the gain.. Was just commenting on what was going on. And I also know that when I hook up the pre with XLR the gain goes down to 28db... A watt is a watt too. And 200 is a lot more than 70.

Wait a minute. You have more gain with single ended RCA than with XLR? That doesn't seem right?

To drive home the point on gain, if the PM runs the speakers at the same level at 12:00 as the ATI does at 9:00, then it simply means the ATI has more gain, thus you use the volume at a lower level to attenuate the input signal.

200W is indeed more than 70W, but double the W to get 3dB increase, so you are "only" looking at about 5dB or so in going from 70W to 200W.

Edit: A quick google search indicates that you might be right about the gain decreasing with the XLR. My next question is whether we are talking about power gain or voltage gain? I'll have to do some more reading on this topic.

 

[RichB]

Wait a minute. You have more gain with single ended RCA than with XLR? That doesn't seem right?

To drive home the point on gain, if the PM runs the speakers at the same level at 12:00 as the ATI does at 9:00, then it simply means the ATI has more gain, thus you use the volume at a lower level to attenuate the input signal.

200W is indeed more than 70W, but double the W to get 3dB increase, so you are "only" looking at about 5dB or so in going from 70W to 200W.

Maybe but it depends on how they were measured. The 70 what rating might be 1Kz not 20hz to 20Khz where as the ATI is full bandwidth and with headroom. It is likely similar to the ATI built Outlaw 7500 measured at SoundAndVision:

This graph shows that the 7500’s left channel, with two channels driving 8-ohm loads continuously at 1 kHz, reached 0.1% distortion at 284.9 watts and 1% distortion at 342.3 watts. Into 4 ohms, the amplifier reached 0.1% distortion at 447.6 watts and 1% distortion at 492.8 watts.

So, it may be more.

- Rich

 

[RichB]

Wrong thread. I moved the HA-1 manual link here:

http://forums.audioholics.com/forums/amps-pre-pros-receivers/88929-oppo-ha1-dac-headpone-amp-preamp-ces.html#post1030391

 

[PENG]

Wait a minute. You have more gain with single ended RCA than with XLR? That doesn't seem right?

To drive home the point on gain, if the PM runs the speakers at the same level at 12:00 as the ATI does at 9:00, then it simply means the ATI has more gain, thus you use the volume at a lower level to attenuate the input signal.

200W is indeed more than 70W, but double the W to get 3dB increase, so you are "only" looking at about 5dB or so in going from 70W to 200W.

Edit: A quick google search indicates that you might be right about the gain decreasing with the XLR. My next question is whether we are talking about power gain or voltage gain? I'll have to do some more reading on this topic.

The preamp balanced output voltage is higher so at the power amp you drop the gain by an equal amount to keep the volume position the same as if balanced input is used. Some power amps, such as the Bryston SST/SST2 allow you to select the input sensitivity so you don't have to drop the gain of the power amp if you don't want to.