I have a Yulong DA8 that I've been using as a dac/amp for the past few months, but I'm a bit of a newbie when it comes to actually hooking configuring a multiple piece system...
I just pulled the trigger on one CMA800R and it will arrive in a few weeks. When it arrives, I'll send the output of the DA8 via two three pin xlr cables to the stereo xlr input pair on the CMA100R, make sure the CMA800R is in stereo mode, switch the DA8 to "Pure DAC" mode and I should then be all set. So, pretty simple all around, I think. Does this sound correct?
But if at some point in the future I pick up a second CMA800R so I can use each of them as a mono-block, what do I need to do get the DA8 to function as a DAC + Preamp? I'll of course need to:
- Switch the two CMA800R's to mono mode.
- Send left xlr channel to one CMA800R and right xlr channel to the other CMA800R.
- Turn volume on each CMA800R to max setting
- And then how do I set up the DA8? As far as I can tell I have two (maybe three?) options:
- A. Use "Pure DAC" mode to ignore the volume switch, which isn't what I want in this case since I want it to function as a pre-amp.
- B. Have it run normally (DAC+Amp) and end up always keeping it's volume near the very low end of what it can do since I'll be leaning on the pair of CMA800R's to do the majority of the amplification?
- C. Some how set the DA8 to run as a DAC+Preamp (No Amp)? I gather this would be optimal, but I'm not sure I can configure the DA8 to run this way?
Or would it be preferable to use the DA8 as just a DAC in this case and get a separate dedicated pre-amp? If so, are there highly reccomended pre-amps for headphones? This is all new to me, so I'm unsure what the correct/best way to set this up is. Thanks!
With two CMA800R's in balanced/dual mono mode, you will need to control the volume from either the preamp on the DA8 or as suggested by project86 an additional preamplifier. Remember that the CMA800R's will be set to full volume, so you know that the output is equal through both of them.