Turntable -> Headphone amp -> headphones? - Page 2

Quote:

Originally Posted by Skylab 

I certainly love vinyl for those reasons, but what point in there is adding an A-D conversion process while listening? It's for sure not going to be completely transparent.

Lots of people only have digital equalizers.

Not quite the crown jewel of golden ears in the analog world, but thats OK.

Digital comparason

Quote:

Originally Posted by Skylab 

AI personally think it's a very bad idea to digitize your vinyl playback for listening. It's one thing to digitize it for archiving LP's, but for playing records, you want to go TT> phono preamp> headphone amp

Thanks for the advice. Now that i think about it a little more it makes sense to skip the DAC completely, I'd like to try and make use of the balanced xlr outputs of the DAC_I but I'd rather not do that at the expense of one of the main reasons for wanting to include vinyl in my setup in the first place.

I would still like to be able to use the MKIV as the preamp to a set of powered speakers. That's the part i am most unsure of now. Is it possible to go straight from the preamp output of the MKIV to the monitors or would that require another stage in between?

I'd really like to be able to include that tubey goodness to the sound the speakers produce, at the same time though I'll be on a tight budget for the forseeable future. Getting the most from the minimum amount of gear is my main focus atm.

Quote:

Originally Posted by nikongod 

Once its archived, what do you do with it? Eventually someone will listen to it.

 

Its all about the mastering. Ooh, and records that never made it to CD. The fact that you play it off of a CD makes very little, if any, difference.

I can totally see the benefit in this, between myself, my old man and my friends there's a ton of vinyl lying around that i'd love to back up, no doubt there's a way to have the best of both worlds.
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by psone 

I would still like to be able to use the MKIV as the preamp to a set of powered speakers. That's the part i am most unsure of now. Is it possible to go straight from the preamp output of the MKIV to the monitors or would that require another stage in between?

 

Yes, in fact, I do this in my office - I go from the preamp outs of a RSA Stealth tube preamp/headphone amp to the inputs of my powered Dynaudio BM5A's.  Works GREAT.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Skylab 

Yes, in fact, I do this in my office - I go from the preamp outs of a RSA Stealth tube preamp/headphone amp to the inputs of my powered Dynaudio BM5A's.  Works GREAT.

Fantastic! now i just have to start scraping some pennies together...thanks for taking the time to answer my questions, I really appreciate it, my bank balance not so much.

oh and for future reference could you not mention Dynaudio around me, the BM5's in particular! it's a sad story really, a while back i was offered a pair for $150 sadly at the time i didn't know who Dynaudio were. I literally have to slap myself every time someone mentions them :P

Quote:

Originally Posted by psone 

 

Fantastic! now i just have to start scraping some pennies together...thanks for taking the time to answer my questions, I really appreciate it, my bank balance not so much.

 

oh and for future reference could you not mention Dynaudio around me, the BM5's in particular! it's a sad story really, a while back i was offered a pair for $150 sadly at the time i didn't know who Dynaudio were. I literally have to slap myself every time someone mentions them :P

Ouch!  Yeah, I can see how that would be upsetting...having a chance to buy $1K/pair speakers for $150!
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Skylab 

Ouch!  Yeah, I can see how that would be upsetting...having a chance to buy $1K/pair speakers for $150!

 

Right??

Well it'll be a while before i'm in the market for speakers, so who knows maybe I'll come across another set for the same kind of money eh! hmm maybe not...

http://www.phonopreamps.com

Cheap and good. Check out the one that does both MM and MC (I think it's something like the 780).

- Ed

Quote:

Originally Posted by pHEnomIC 

What do you recommend for a cheap option? The NAD ones are like 150 it looks like.

 

I noticed that many receivers have built in phono pre amps.  How do they compare to the standalone ones?

Quote:

Originally Posted by pHEnomIC 

I noticed the audio-gd compass does have a pre-amp built in.  Will I be able to use this and just use the turntable -> compass -> headphones?

I don't think so, thats a preamp out like on my MKIV, its just for sending the signal on to a receiver, some other device or as i'm hoping to do, a set of active monitors.

you can't input the TT through that, you'd still need phono stage to get the output from the TT up to Line Level.

Right, that won't work.  "Pre-amp" and "Phono Pre-amp" are not the same thing.

I have been using an Audio Technica AT-PEQ3 phono pre that I got on sale for $40 for a long time now and it is fantastic for the price. I have it paired with a an Audio Technica AT-440MLa cart and an older Rega Planar 3 turntable and could not be happier. If you are on a budget don't get into MC unless you got the cash to blow on a good cartridge and phono pre.

http://www.lpgear.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=ATPEQ3&Category_Code=PP