[Mr.Shadow]

Hey all SB3/Headfier users.

I was just thinking, the SB3 can serve as a preamp, which I read is not bad at all at that department.

Did anyone try using it straight to a power amp ?
I know it's very hard with Headphones as I don't think there are Headphones Power AMP, except for the Jan Meir, which is quite expensive.

Anyone tried it with a speaker setup ?

Could be very interesting, though I'm just thinking out loud

Mikhail, any chance for a SinglePower power amp ?

 

[DaNuS]

I have tried this and it worked fine. The only warning that has been mentioned is that since the SB volume control is software only, any bugs that could lead to the volume resetting itself could damage speakers. If the amp has adjustable gain settings then you'd be better off. Simply set the SB to the max volume and adjust the gain to the max level you'd listen to. Then use the SB volume control for day to day use. This way any volume bugs wouldn't damage your spekers.

 

[kmcdonou]

My modded SB is directly connected to a pair of Monarchy SM-70 Pro amps and it works great. I have it connected to the amps via the analog out of the SB and my Singlepower Supra is connected to the SB via the digital out and my Ack Dack.

 

[Mr.Shadow]

Is there is a certain threshold of attenuation level that the SB3 will degrade the sound quality ?
I know that in Wadia CDP, they do not recommend to go below 70(out of 100) or else sound quality will be degraded, but there it happens duo to the upsampling that the Internal DAC is doing, and by dropping bits, he lowers the volume level (more or less) I don't really know how they do it in the SB3.

Just some thoughts...

 

[DaNuS]

I think the volume number i heard was 50 (out of 100). You can check over at the slimdevices forum to be sure.