buson160man
1000+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Feb 3, 2011
- Posts
- 1,020
- Likes
- 226
Hey Buson160 -
I think there might be an issue with Rag as a preamp - depending on which outputs are used to feed the amp. Remember Rag is fully balanced, which means no channel comingling. So for the SE headphone jack, Schiit inserts a "summer" circuit before the jack. As quite a few people on this thread can testify, this translates to a noticeable drop in sound quality when going from balanced to SE with phones. I call it "the summer of our discontent."
Here's the thing - I believe the same "summer" is used in front of the RCA outs. Jason can correct me if I'm mistaken. If so, I have no reason to doubt that a comparable deleterious effect on SQ would be heard when using the RCAs to feed an amp which has only RCA inputs. I believe, and again just going from memory, that a few people have used Rag as pre and been underwhelmed. The solution would be to use Rag's balanced outs to an amp with balanced ins - I'm not sure balanced-to-RCA adapters could be used without tripping the Rag's protection circuitry.
There's also cautions in the manual (quickly downloadable at the Schiit site) about using the Rag with any speakers where the two communicate with each other. Peruse that or email Schiit direct.
I use the RCA outs to feed the subwoofer, which works fine.
Actually I really only intended to use the ragnarok as strictly a balanced preamp to my active powered monitors(emotiva stealth 8s) Which can only be used in balanced fashion. But after reading your comments about the summer for single ended headphones that kind of puts me off.
Seeing that I only have single ended headphones that would put the kabosh on my trying it.
Looks to me that the grace 905 analog monitor controller is the correct path to take. Thank you for the input. I do not intend to use the preamp as a headphone amp. My preferred headphone amp is a recapped vintage concept monster receiver the 16.5. The concept is a real beast with its dual mono power supply with two large frame transformers one for each channel. You should hear this beast driving my lcd2s the grip and power it provides my lcd2s is quite unique. I have never heard any high end dedicated headphone amp regardless of price that has the grip that the concept has on the lcd2. The concept receiver uses two 7 amp fuses now that is a lot of current..
It should be interesting to hear what the grace m 905 sounds like on headphones though that is not my intent for its use which is strictly as a preamp for my emotiva stealth 8 monitors.