[lh0628]

Hello,

I have a general question about DACs' line-out connections. Is a mini plug different from RCA outs? This is for connecting to powered speakers that accepts 2V RCAs.

I hope this is a simply yes/no question, or does it depends on circuit designs (things I don't understand

) ?

Thank you.

 

[germanium]

Quote:

Originally Posted by lh0628 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Hello, I have a general question about DACs' line-out connections. Is a mini plug different from RCA outs? This is for connecting to powered speakers that accepts 2V RCAs. I hope this is a simply yes/no question, or does it depends on circuit designs (things I don't understand ) ? Thank you.

You can drive powered speakers from them but if the mini plug is designed for headphone they could have some extra gain to them. Either case have your speaker turned nearly all the way down when powering up the first time to prevent possable damage due to excess volume & keep the nieghbors from complaining. 2 volts is enough to drive any powered speaker or amp to clipping which can damage speakers & sometime even amps.

This last is very rare but I have seen it happen on a very expensive Threshold Stasis amp. These amps the voltage amp is connected direct to the speakers & to a current bootstrap that is supposed to supply all the current but if you overwhelm the current bootstrap by overdriving it then the voltage amp is exposed directly to the speaker & is no longer in stasis. The net consequence was fried Stasis amp. This failure happened on the test bench when the amp was intentionally overdriven to observe its distortion characteristics by a technician from Macintosh. They were showing to a gathered crowd at the store the superior charachteristics of Macintosh amps when over driven. They have built in fast acting limiters to prevent actually overdriving the amp.

 

[lh0628]

Thank you.

I thought standard line-out is 2V.

So if I had a DAC with only minijack for lineout, which spec should I check to make sure that it doesn't damage the speakers? Is it normally listed?

 

[germanium]

Quote:

Originally Posted by lh0628 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Thank you. I thought standard line-out is 2V. So if I had a DAC with only minijack for lineout, which spec should I check to make sure that it doesn't damage the speakers? Is it normally listed?

As long as you turn the speakers amps almost all the way down when first powering up you should be safe even if there is extra gain for headphones which from the sounds of it there is not. Even 2 volts though is enough to overdrive powered speakers if turned all the way up.

 

[lh0628]

I see what you mean.

Last question, is there a disadvantage using this setup in terms of sound quality? Would it be any less than a DAC with proper RCA out?

 

[germanium]

Quote:

Originally Posted by lh0628 /img/forum/go_quote.gif I see what you mean. Last question, is there a disadvantage using this setup in terms of sound quality? Would it be any less than a DAC with proper RCA out?

It all depends on the quality of the unit itself but DACs with RCA jacks would likely be built better than ones with just minijacks. They have a different target market than the minijacked versions. Even better ones would have balanced ouputs as these would be meant for the pro market but most consumer gear don't have balanced inputs untill you get to the high end. This however does not always mean inferior sound though as some soundcards have better sound out with minijacks than some others do with RCA jacks.

 

[lh0628]

Well there are a few portable DAC/AMP that gets fairly good reviews and only have minijacks. The iBasso D4 for example, it has an phone out and an aux out, both are 1/4 minijacks.

I'm guessing they did this for portability reasons, but given a good product, is it safe to say a minijack->RCA solution is as good as RCA->RCA?

 

[Uri Cohen]

I tired both line-out and RCA with my DAC to my amp and I didn't notice anything different from the outputs, but your mileage may vary.

 

[lh0628]

Thanks. Is your DAC the Monitor 02? How are you liking it so far?