[tight_budget]

This is my current system.

1) HD-DVD player
2) SACD/CD player
3) Home theatre receiver
4) Headphone amplifier

I would say that 80% of the time I use headphones for movies and music. Unfortunately my headamp only has 1 set of inputs, so I end up switching between the RCA cables of the HDDVD player and the sacd player. The other problem then is that the SACD player does not have additional analog outs to connect to the receiver for stereo SACD.

Would getting a pre-amp solve my problem? I would like both my sources to go to the pre-amp, and then have two outputs from the pre-amp, one to the headamp and one to the HT receiver. Is that possible?

 

[Uncle Erik]

Most preamps add some gain to the input to pass along to the power amp. Your HT receiver and headphone amps already have preamp circuitry.

What I think you need is a source selector switch. Radio Shack has a decent one for $20: RadioShack.com - Home Entertainment: Accessories: Video accessories: Selectors & switches: 4-Way Audio/Video Selector Switch.

It's reasonably easy to build your own, as well.

 

[Capunk]

This might sound stupid, but how bad the sonic quality degradation by using the selector?

 

[tight_budget]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Capunk /img/forum/go_quote.gif This might sound stupid, but how bad the sonic quality degradation by using the selector?

That's what I was afraid of too.

I was also thinking that a tube preamp might lend some nice sounding tube signatures to my music.

 

[Penchum]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tight_budget /img/forum/go_quote.gif This is my current system. 1) HD-DVD player 2) SACD/CD player 3) Home theatre receiver 4) Headphone amplifier I would say that 80% of the time I use headphones for movies and music. Unfortunately my headamp only has 1 set of inputs, so I end up switching between the RCA cables of the HDDVD player and the sacd player. The other problem then is that the SACD player does not have additional analog outs to connect to the receiver for stereo SACD. Would getting a pre-amp solve my problem? I would like both my sources to go to the pre-amp, and then have two outputs from the pre-amp, one to the headamp and one to the HT receiver. Is that possible?

If your two players can hook up to the receiver, do you have a "record out" available on the receiver? If so, you could hook your headphone amp to that and use the receiver as the pre-amp/switcher.

 

[ethebull]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Penchum /img/forum/go_quote.gif If your two players can hook up to the receiver, do you have a "record out" available on the receiver? If so, you could hook your headphone amp to that and use the receiver as the pre-amp/switcher.

I was going to make the same comment as P, but let me elaborate.

Your HT receiver has a preamp in it. A HT receiver is a preamp + amps (5-7 channels) + tuner + digital surround processor. They're just all in the one chassis.

The record-out jacks are not fed through active circuitry in the preamp typically. You may not even need to turn the receiver on to use the sources connected to it while listening to headphones thru your separate amp. My preamp works that way. But with electronic switching in many modern receivers, power on might be required. BTW your receivers volume control will not be in the loop.