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LOD questions

post #1 of 4
6/9/10 at 6:35pm
Thread Starter 

I've posted this under another section, but haven't gotten much response, I hope someone that is experienced and knowledgable can answer this question with great detail(please read my post fully, I have alot of specific questions).  What is the difference in amping through headphone out and Line Out?  

 

I have heard the line out bypasses an internal amp in the DAP that attenuates the volume, but if the amp is bypassed, the volume is a max(atleast for ipods).  If that is the case, through the headphone out, putting the volume at max, and passing it to external amp would be that much of a difference?  What makes the line out signal so special?  has anybody measured the line out signal to see if there is detectable electrical difference?  I would feel more comfortable with that answer than someone telling me it sounds better.  

 

Also, if your reasoning is that it is being double amped(there is the attenuating amp in the path), please tell me why that would degrade the sound quality.  I am really looking for some reasoning behind it, technical would be great.  For example, RSA's balanced amp has 2 for channel, why would that be kosher, while having internal amp in the path is not?  Like I said, technical or answer based on measurements with graphs would be great.  Thanks.


Edited by High_Q - 6/10/10 at 4:54pm
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post #2 of 4
6/9/10 at 6:57pm

wall o text not going to tell you ^_^

 

google just failed me http://lmgtfy.com

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post #3 of 4
6/10/10 at 11:39am

I haven't done any testing or anything, but I'm pretty sure it's not the same thing as the headphone out at full volume.  Headphone out at max can cause bad distortion whereas line out hasn't.

 

"Double amping" isn't inherently bad, but if one of the amps is really bad (ie distorts easily, has a lot of noise, can't drive loads properly, etc.) then it'll degrade the sound much more than just the other amp.  If both amps are high quality, your signal is still high quality.  Also when you say RSA's balanced amp has two amps per channel, I believe that's because it has one driving the hot signal and one driving the cold signal which is a little bit different.

 

Also it would make your post more readable if you broke it up into two paragraphs.  I didn't think it was that bad, but assume if your post has more than 4 lines in any single block of text, many people won't read it.  I think if your post is at least 5 paragraphs you're allowed to make them longer. It's not a science though, more like an art =]

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post #4 of 4
6/17/10 at 10:27pm

There are threads on this subject if you search.  

 

With different versions of iPODs you can hear the different internal amps.  Personally the latest iPod headphone out sounds better to me than my previous version iPod.  Bottom line - LOD and a good amp sound better.  Some headphones sound much better amped than others. 

 

If you max the volume on the headphone out and plug an external amp (via mini-mini), you will hear the noise while on pause. I don't hear any noise with my RSA Shadow w/ LOD.  

 

I personally don't think there's a need for electronic testing equipment to verify what you can obviously hear.

 

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