[sneakyvince]

Hi,
 
I'm looking for a way in which I can easily switch between my IEM's and my headphone on the same schiit stack (Asgard 2 and Bitfrost).
The headphone uses the 6x gain and the IEM's use the 1.5x gain.
 
 
So I was thinking:
 
If I plug the headphone into the 6.3 mm jack on the front with the 6x gain ON and connect the IEM's to the RCA outputs will I hear the high gain on the IEM's?
 
Or will it sound really bad (the IEM's) this way? 
 
I just want a cheap solution to use both my IEM and headphone on the same amp will retaining SQ and would like to avoid a switch or something like that.
 
 
Thanks in advance

 

[PurpleAngel]

  I'm looking for a way in which I can easily switch between my IEM's and my headphone on the same Schiit stack (Asgard 2 and Bitfrost).
The headphone uses the 6x gain and the IEM's use the 1.5x gain.
So I was thinking:
If I plug the headphone into the 6.3 mm jack on the front with the 6x gain ON and connect the IEM's to the RCA outputs will I hear the high gain on the IEM's?
Or will it sound really bad (the IEM's) this way? 
I just want a cheap solution to use both my IEM and headphone on the same amp will retaining SQ and would like to avoid a switch or something like that.
Thanks in advance

 
The RCA line-outputs on the Schiit Asgard are not designed or intended for directly driving headphones (IEMs).
Also I believe when headphones are plugged into the Asgard's 6.3mm headphone jack, the RCA outputs will not function.
So you really stuck with having to switch between the headphones and the IEM, with the 6.3mm headphone jack.

 

[sneakyvince]

   
The RCA line-outputs on the Schiit Asgard are not designed or intended for directly driving headphones (IEMs).
Also I believe when headphones are plugged into the Asgard's 6.3mm headphone jack, the RCA outputs will not function.
So you really stuck with having to switch between the headphones and the IEM, with the 6.3mm headphone jack.

Yeah I was already aware of the muting and it's a feature that wouldn't really bother me.
In what way are the RCA outputs not suitable for directly driving headphones/IEM's, and does the gain switch affect the volume of the RCA outputs?
 
 
 
I'm just looking for a good solution to switch between my IEM and headphones.
If I were to buy a 2.0 speaker set with a headphone output, would that work?

 

[ProtegeManiac]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sneakyvince /img/forum/go_quote.gif

 

In what way are the RCA outputs not suitable for directly driving headphones/IEM's, and does the gain switch affect the volume of the RCA outputs?

 

It doesn't pass through an amplification circuit.

 

By contrast your smartphone for example actually uses an integrated chip which has both a DAC and amplifier in it except the amp section doesn't have access to a good power supply - think of this as an AMD APU, where the CPU and GPU are on the same die, but the GPU doesn't have its own RAM - and the amp circuit in there is what makes it less ideal as a line out.

 

What you are doing is essentially the reverse of that - using a line out to drive an IEM.

 

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by sneakyvince /img/forum/go_quote.gif

 

I'm just looking for a good solution to switch between my IEM and headphones.

 

Buy a headphone amp with two headphone output ports. Alternately, it doesn't take a lot of time nor energy to pull out one plug and connect another, just be careful and pull it out straight.

 

[PurpleAngel]

  Yeah I was already aware of the muting and it's a feature that wouldn't really bother me.
In what way are the RCA outputs not suitable for directly driving headphones/IEM's, and does the gain switch affect the volume of the RCA outputs?
I'm just looking for a good solution to switch between my IEM and headphones.
If I were to buy a 2.0 speaker set with a headphone output, would that work?

 
The RCA jacks are line-output, analog audio signal designed to feed (power) a good signal into an amplifier.
Truth is line-outputs can power headphones, it's just not the best way.
IEM really need to be driven by a power source with a really low output impedance, where as I believe line-outputs function better with high impedance (guessing).
 
I'm guessing the headphone output jacks built into speaker have a higher output impedance, maybe not as high as a normal line-output jack, but still way higher then a decent quality headphone amplifier.
 
If you have headphones, why even use IEMs, with a desktop headphone amplifier?
IEMs are really designed for use with portable devices (MP3 players and phones)
 
I'm fairly sure the gain switch on the Asgard does not effect the RCA output.
Really no good reason for it to effect the line-output.

 

[superjawes]

I'm fairly sure the gain switch on the Asgard does not effect the RCA output.
Really no good reason for it to effect the line-output.

The preamp outputs on Asgard are there so you can control the volume of speakers with the amp (which is why they mute when you plug in headphones). The gain switch is to make Asgard work better for IEMs in low gain while still offering more power for full size headphones. I will check on my Magni 2 Uber when I get home, but I don't think that the gain switch will affect the preamp outs because they are there for different reasons.

And to OP, buy a new small amp for your IEMs. Or get a new big amp for your headphones. Or get a new amp with two headphone outputs. Or just deal with the minor inconvenience of flipping the gain switch and swapping plugs at the front jack. Asgard can't work any magic to avoid the switch flip/jack swap, so those are your options.