MayorSimpleton
100+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Aug 5, 2006
- Posts
- 254
- Likes
- 89
OK - I'm getting myself in a tangle here, any experts help much appreciated.
So. Originally I was running a mid-fi CD player as my transport, into a heavily-modded Musical Fidelity X-Cans V3, and out into my MS2i's. I could only use about the first 1/4 of the volume dial until it became too loud to listen to.
I wanted to tone down the signal from the CDP a bit in an effort to reduce the harshness I was hearing through the headphones ( as well as free up some more of the volume dial ), and read that using attenuating interconnects would help. So I bought a set of Kimber PJB ( solid copper core ) cables, attenuated to 14db. All fine, although looking back I didn't use the rig much. I could now turn the volume up about half way.
Fast-forward a couple of years, and I pick the head-fi trail again. First I re-buy some HD600's, which I love. Then I buy a DAC ( CA DacMagic ) to become my main transport. I make up the relevant cable config, and run the DAC from it's XLR outs into the X-Cans, which Cambridge Audio suggest improves sound quality whilst losing a few db's of loudness. It does exactly that - all good - I'm happy, and can now use most of the X-Cans volume control, depending on how hot the original recording is.
Now - I've bought a pair of AKG K340's which are notoriously hard to drive, so with that in mind and while I'm waiting for them to arrive I decide to make up a new set of interconnects to replace the attenuated Kimbers I've been using up til now. With the new 'straight-though' ( again solid copper-core, Headphile this time ) interconnects installed - I'm hearing a noticeable improvement in SQ through my HD600's - and of course I can now only use about a half of the volume control again. Still - the improved SQ has got me confused.
I'm assuming the SQ improvement is coming from the increased power ( or signal? ) the HD600's are getting - I understand they are also a little tough to drive properly. But why, in this case, is this not the same as leaving the attenuators in place and just turning the volume right up?!
Is final 'volume' from an amp different from the actual power it is putting out?
If you attenuate the signal going into an amp - are you not reducing the power coming out of the other end, or is the power the same - but with less signal to amplify?
If the above is the case - would using attenuators not decrease sound quality - because the amp is amplifying everything - the actual signal, plus the nothingness around the signal ( noise? ). Reason I ask is that I always assumed that attenuating a signal could help reduce background noise and hiss - and in fact it does as I have found out by using an attenuator between my mp3 player and the earbuds - although obviously this attenuation takes place after the signal is amplified, rather than before as in the scenario above.
Do you even know what I'm getting at?!
Sorry for the long-winded and garbled story - but I'd love someone to explain to me ( in laymans terms! ) what is going here. I suspect I'm bumping into the mechanics of what folk refer to as 'synergy' betweens components. It's all very confusing.
Thanks in advance.
So. Originally I was running a mid-fi CD player as my transport, into a heavily-modded Musical Fidelity X-Cans V3, and out into my MS2i's. I could only use about the first 1/4 of the volume dial until it became too loud to listen to.
I wanted to tone down the signal from the CDP a bit in an effort to reduce the harshness I was hearing through the headphones ( as well as free up some more of the volume dial ), and read that using attenuating interconnects would help. So I bought a set of Kimber PJB ( solid copper core ) cables, attenuated to 14db. All fine, although looking back I didn't use the rig much. I could now turn the volume up about half way.
Fast-forward a couple of years, and I pick the head-fi trail again. First I re-buy some HD600's, which I love. Then I buy a DAC ( CA DacMagic ) to become my main transport. I make up the relevant cable config, and run the DAC from it's XLR outs into the X-Cans, which Cambridge Audio suggest improves sound quality whilst losing a few db's of loudness. It does exactly that - all good - I'm happy, and can now use most of the X-Cans volume control, depending on how hot the original recording is.
Now - I've bought a pair of AKG K340's which are notoriously hard to drive, so with that in mind and while I'm waiting for them to arrive I decide to make up a new set of interconnects to replace the attenuated Kimbers I've been using up til now. With the new 'straight-though' ( again solid copper-core, Headphile this time ) interconnects installed - I'm hearing a noticeable improvement in SQ through my HD600's - and of course I can now only use about a half of the volume control again. Still - the improved SQ has got me confused.
I'm assuming the SQ improvement is coming from the increased power ( or signal? ) the HD600's are getting - I understand they are also a little tough to drive properly. But why, in this case, is this not the same as leaving the attenuators in place and just turning the volume right up?!
Is final 'volume' from an amp different from the actual power it is putting out?
If you attenuate the signal going into an amp - are you not reducing the power coming out of the other end, or is the power the same - but with less signal to amplify?
If the above is the case - would using attenuators not decrease sound quality - because the amp is amplifying everything - the actual signal, plus the nothingness around the signal ( noise? ). Reason I ask is that I always assumed that attenuating a signal could help reduce background noise and hiss - and in fact it does as I have found out by using an attenuator between my mp3 player and the earbuds - although obviously this attenuation takes place after the signal is amplified, rather than before as in the scenario above.
Do you even know what I'm getting at?!
Sorry for the long-winded and garbled story - but I'd love someone to explain to me ( in laymans terms! ) what is going here. I suspect I'm bumping into the mechanics of what folk refer to as 'synergy' betweens components. It's all very confusing.
Thanks in advance.
