[caddie444]

Hello,
 
I just purchased a xonar essence STU and am planning on purchasing some studio monitors (possibly Audioengine A5's) and a headphone amp (probably a fiio e09k) as well.
 
Here is the back of the STU:
 

 
 
 
 
The manual is saying this:
 
 
 

 
So is it suggesting that I hook up my headphone amp to the STU, and then my monitors to the headphone amp?? Not sure how to do that...
 
I am curious as to what the best way would be to hook all these up. I am new to this scene so haven't had a chance to set this up before. Any help appreciated, thanks!

 

[MindsMirror]

The A5 is an active speaker system, meaning the amplifier is built in. That manual is describing how to hook up passive speakers, which don't have an amp and need an external one. Hook the A5 speakers directly to the DAC. You also hook the headphone amp directly to the DAC, so if you don't want to be plugging/unplugging cable every time you switch you can use a basic RCA/phono splitter which will output to both at once, or a switch box which can select between them.
 
Edit: or the A5 has a low level audio out which will pass the signal through. Connect the speakers to the DAC and the headphone amp to the line output on the speakers.

 

[PleasantSounds]

You don't need a splitter.
 
Connect the E09k to the DAC as shown on the picture, using the FiiO's AUX IN terminals.
Connect your speakers to the PRE OUT terminals in E09k.
This way you will be able to use E09k to control the speakers volume as well.

 

[ProtegeManiac]

 
So is it suggesting that I hook up my headphone amp to the STU, and then my monitors to the headphone amp?? Not sure how to do that...
 
I am curious as to what the best way would be to hook all these up. I am new to this scene so haven't had a chance to set this up before. Any help appreciated, thanks!

 
Active monitors, whether studio monitors or in this case a consumer-oriented model like the A5, have their amplifiers built into the speaker cabinets. So basically you just find the correct RCA terminals on the speaker cabinets and then hook up the DAC's output there.
 
In this case, since your DAC only has one pair of outputs and you don't have a headphone amplifier yet, you need to get a headphone amp with at least a bypass output (that loops the input signal out of it) or better yet one with a preamp output. The latter routs the signal through the amplifier's potentiometer, that way you can control the volume from arm's reach instead of reaching over to the active monitors, which is even trickier with studio monitors because each speaker cabinet has its own amp and its own gain control, whereas consumer monitors like the A5 have a Master-Slave set-up where all the amps for the system are built into the Master and you just have a speaker cable running from the other channel/s going to the Slave.

 

[caddie444]

Ok thanks for the replies, didn't realize the difference between active/passive monitors.
 
@ProtegeManiac How will I know if a headphone amp has a preamp output? I'm guessing it will have an output on the back which reads "preout" like @PleasantSounds mentioned...
 
Also, I had the Fiio E09k in mind just because I remember reading that it was a decent amp for the DT 880's, but are there any other amps that would work well within reasonably the same pricerange?
 
Thanks!

 

[ProtegeManiac]

  Ok thanks for the replies, didn't realize the difference between active/passive monitors.
 
@ProtegeManiac How will I know if a headphone amp has a preamp output? I'm guessing it will have an output on the back which reads "preout" like @PleasantSounds mentioned...

 
Yup.
 

 
 
 
But check the specs in case it only says "output," as it might be a loop output - as on the preamp output below.
 

 
In any case you'd look up the amp's specs on the product page anyway.

 

[caddie444]

Ok thanks. Just so I know, what is the difference between a loop output and a preamp output? Google didn't yield much...

 

[PurpleAngel]

  Hello,
 
I just purchased a xonar essence STU and am planning on purchasing some studio monitors (possibly Audioengine A5's) and a headphone amp (probably a fiio e09k) as well.
Here is the back of the STU:
The manual is saying this:
So is it suggesting that I hook up my headphone amp to the STU, and then my monitors to the headphone amp?? Not sure how to do that...
I am curious as to what the best way would be to hook all these up. I am new to this scene so haven't had a chance to set this up before. Any help appreciated, thanks!

 
Return the STU, buy the Audio-GD NFB-11.

 

[ProtegeManiac]

  Ok thanks. Just so I know, what is the difference between a loop output and a preamp output? Google didn't yield much...

 
Why Google when you can scroll back up?
 

 
In this case, since your DAC only has one pair of outputs and you don't have a headphone amplifier yet, you need to get a headphone amp with at least a bypass output (that loops the input signal out of it) or better yet one with a preamp output. The latter routs the signal through the amplifier's potentiometer, that way you can control the volume from arm's reach instead of reaching over to the active monitors, which is even trickier with studio monitors because each speaker cabinet has its own amp and its own gain control, whereas consumer monitors like the A5 have a Master-Slave set-up where all the amps for the system are built into the Master and you just have a speaker cable running from the other channel/s going to the Slave.

 

[cel4145]

Return the STU, buy the Audio-GD NFB-11.

+1

I was just going to say this when I started reading your first post. If you aren't going to use the headphone amp in the STU, you need to revaluate how you are allocating your money. The NFB-11 is an exceptional dac/pre-amp/headphone amp. If you have a PC, couple this with an Asus Xonar or Creative sound card for <$100 that has the DSP you want, and you'll have a fantastic setup. And if you don't need virtual surround for gaming or movies, you don't even need the sound card.

Perhaps you should tell us a little more about your listening habits (music/movie/gaming) and why you need the STU.