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Double Amping - Does it degrade sound quality?

post #1 of 6
12/18/10 at 5:07am
Thread Starter 

Hi I'm asking this question because currently my Darkvoice amp is not directly connected to my motherboard's line out jack, instead the amp is connected to the headphone jack of my speakers, which in turn is connected to the mobo's L/O jack. I realise this is actually double amping, where the signal from the computer runs through both the built-in amp of the speakers and the amp itself. Just wanna know does it have a significant impact on the sound signature? Would it degrade the sound?  From what I've tested directly connecting to the computer itself there seems to be a slight difference, double amping causes some instruments to be a little muddy, BUT I'm not sure if it's my imagination. However if I directly connect the amp to the mobo there will be static in the right channel of my headphones, not sure why but something to do with the internal components of the computer.,.

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post #2 of 6
12/18/10 at 5:22am

Arguably double amping does degrade sound quality. This is because any imperfections in sound caused by the first amp will be amplified by the second amp.

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post #3 of 6
12/18/10 at 5:38am
Thread Starter 

okay thanks for the prompt reply! But this means I would have to probably buy a DAC oh dammmnnn.....

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post #4 of 6
12/18/10 at 7:34am

you are cursing because it is going to cost you money, right?

 

well, you will thank yourself once you hear a stand-alone dac, compared to the sound from your computer...

(our favorite saying on head-fi is this:  garbage in, garbage out.  your amp will only amplifiy what it is fed from the source.  so, if it is garbage, your darkvoice is just going to make that garbage louder...)

 

try the budget-priced nuforce udac 2.

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post #5 of 6
12/18/10 at 9:46pm
Thread Starter 

Okay thanks for the advice haha. Will consider the UDAC2...How is the Audinst compared to it? I might be able to get one used for the price of a UDAC2 brand new.

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post #6 of 6
12/21/10 at 9:08pm

Simple answer, Thanks Wuss

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