[gerG]

Oh, the volume control. I have tried both techniques, and I much prefer to bypass the VC in the DAC1, and use the beautifully matched stepped controls in the M901s. Since they have very obvious steps, they are easy to keep in sync.


gerG

 

[lan]

Ah ok. All is clear now. Nice play on the interconnects. I think I'll try a similar thing. I may try it on my grados and sa5000.

 

[fierce_freak]

I'm insanely jealous...nice!

 

[edisonwu]

Cool, you guys are god damn genius.

 

[edisonwu]

I want that magic cables

 

[Edwood]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hello Ian, there's no need to rewire the Grace to use it in balanced configuration. Just output the balanced right channel to one Grace amp and the balanced left channel to the other Grace amp. But, how do you keep the left-right channels at equal volume? Are you using the Dac-1 for volume control?

The Grace 901 has DACT stepped attenuators, so it would be much like the Blockhead for adjusting volume via the amps.

But I'm sure he can use the Benchmark as a preamp.

-Ed

 

[jjcha]

But two m902's can share the same remote!!

Hmmmmmmm. This grows more tempting by the moment.

Best,

-Jason

 

[insomniac]

Wow, that DOES look like a lot of fun to set up. Well done. It's essentially a Grace Blockhead!

 

[gerG]

M902, lol, it took you guys 20 posts to up the ante on me. Lo how the mighty have fallen

More pics just for fun. Let's do a glamour shot (please forgive my awful photo skills):

Here is how I actually use this setup. It takes up very little desk space this way, and the vertical orientation allows very good natural convection. These things make heat, so the stack in the above shot would run too hot.

Rear view for cable fans (Mogami wire, Canare RCA, Neutrik XLR):

gerG

 

[Alwayswantmore]

...tell us more about how it sounds compared to single end!

 

[Iron_Dreamer]

And of course you could do this with ANY balanced output source, and ANY 2 single-ended headphone amps, including tube amps. Do I smell balanced Raptors?

 

[gerG]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Iron_Dreamer And of course you could do this with ANY balanced output source, and ANY 2 single-ended headphone amps, including tube amps. Do I smell balanced Raptors?

That's the spirit!

Only one caution for experimenters: Check with the specific amp manufacturer to make sure that the outputs won't drift and create a large DC offset. I don't think it would be an issue, but this setup does take away the inherent ground reference of the single ended output.

Once you get the cables made up, you can try different amps. This would be handy at a meet, where matched pairs would be easy to put together. Note that my setup will drive 2 balanced headphones at once. This would be true of any amps with multiple outputs.

gerG

 

[bangraman]

Intriguing idea. However presuming you don't necessarily need two headphone amps floating around, is there any practical benefit to this vs a bal. Max?

 

[shplorgh]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bangraman Intriguing idea. However presuming you don't necessarily need two headphone amps floating around, is there any practical benefit to this vs a bal. Max?

Well you get to use whatever amp you want, not just the max.

 

[Mikenet]

If you don't tell me how it sounds soon I'm going to become very angry.

And you wouldn't like me if I'm angry.