Q: Headphone amp as preamp?

[Tyll Hertsens]

Originally Posted by solvexyz

I am setting the EQ at flat. I do like the stand out mid of this settings. About the positioning of the speaker, I actually do not like the sound when the speaker points towards my ears directly. You know the triangle position. The bass reverberation produced by this position kind of annoys me.

I usually find that I tilt the speakers so that the tweeter is slightly farther away than the woofer, and usually point the speakers inward but not so far that they are pointing directly to my ears. Being slightly off axis like that seems to make the sound a bit smoother and more to my liking. This is only a generality, of course, and different speakers require their own adjustment.

[solvexyz]

Originally Posted by Tyll Hertsens

I usually find that I tilt the speakers so that the tweeter is slightly farther away than the woofer, and usually point the speakers inward but not so far that they are pointing directly to my ears. Being slightly off axis like that seems to make the sound a bit smoother and more to my liking. This is only a generality, of course, and different speakers require their own adjustment.

Tyll Thanks for the suggestion. Yah, I guess what I am planning to do is to raise the speaker to my ear level first. the reflection off my glass desk might be why the triangular position is not to my liking.

[warpdriver]

I might be headphone amp-less for a while. If I can control the volume level using the Windows volume control, can I plug my active speakers directly into the output of the Micro DAC? (original 9V model) Is it completely safe to do that in the electrical sense? Will the impedance match be ok? Will there be any degradation besides the fact I'm using Windows mixer?

[noseallinit]

Originally Posted by warpdriver

I might be headphone amp-less for a while. If I can control the volume level using the Windows volume control, can I plug my active speakers directly into the output of the Micro DAC? (original 9V model) Is it completely safe to do that in the electrical sense? Will the impedance match be ok? Will there be any degradation besides the fact I'm using Windows mixer?

I want swear to it but I do not see why not for I put my MicroDAC before my NAD receiver. it's not like plugging headphones or passive speakers directly into the DAC. you are putting a line level signal output before the line level input of the amp that's built into the speakers.

before I got into these headphone amps I was originally looking at some Roland active monitors that had a built in DAC connected by fiber optic to the source. because I knew I wanted a DAC between my computer and output, it led me to be psyched about getting the MicroStack.

[Tyll Hertsens]

Originally Posted by warpdriver

I might be headphone amp-less for a while. If I can control the volume level using the Windows volume control, can I plug my active speakers directly into the output of the Micro DAC? (original 9V model) Is it completely safe to do that in the electrical sense? Will the impedance match be ok? Will there be any degradation besides the fact I'm using Windows mixer?

That should work okay. It's possible that the output from the Micro DAC may be a bit hot (high voltage) for the self-powered speakers; if it is, you'll get crunchy noises at the program peaks. Oh ... come to think about it, if you are going to adjust the volume with the k-mixer that won't be a problem. Do your active speakers have a volume control? If so I'd suggest turning the k-mixer volume up as high as you can without any distortion and then ust the powered speaker volume control for volume adjustment.

[warpdriver]

thanks. So I'm good to go then. No, the Dynaudio's don't have a volume control. It has an input sensitivity (-10dB/0/4dB) for pro vs consumer outputs, so I think I'll be ok in that respect.