[i luvmusic 2]

MacBook Pro/YAMAHA CD player TEAC UD-H01 PIONEER SA-7700/Bottlehead S.E.X.

 

[obobskivich]

Hi All,

Anyone hook it up to Presonus Eris5 Powered Monitor studio? As Presonus Eris5 does not have volume control wonder UD-H01 able to contro l the volume or control on the laptop.

Thanks 

Thats a no-go. You need a volume control the H01 lacks. Something like Schiit SYS inbetween would make it work.

 

[misfits73]

Has anyone tried it with XLR to RCA cables?I've got a pair but i don't know if pin 3 on the XLR side should be floating or no

 

[obobskivich]

Has anyone tried it with XLR to RCA cables?I've got a pair but i don't know if pin 3 on the XLR side should be floating or no

Have not personally tried it, but the XLR pinout is documented in the user manual; http://www.teac.com/content/downloads/products/770/ud-h01_om.pdf

Compare to what your adapters do and go from there. You could also just use a y-splitter on the RCA outputs if your XLR/RCA adapters aren't going to be compatible.

It's also labeled on the unit itself, but that's not as easy to read. Especially if its in a cabinet or similar.

 

[misfits73]

First of all pin 3 is active when playing 1KHz test signal and since pins 1&3 are shorted i'm afraid of
causing any damage on the output stage.
With pin 3 floating the sound is lot quiter (voltage drops to half)
Both ways it sounds better.
 
If i could find any documentation that it won't damage the output i would go XLR all the way
That was a popular tweak for the Dacmagic but i don't know if pin 3 is inactive or not

 

[obobskivich]

Pin 3 is -, of course it will have signal - it's the second (inverting) phase. :rolleyes: (I provided a link to the manual which has the pinout, it follows standard XLR balanced audio conventions, and its labeled on the unit).

You also shouldn't be shorting anything - a proper XLR to RCA adapter will just take one of the legs (you can technically take either 2 or 3 with no fuss, but in general you'd take 2) and common (pin 1) and be done with it. See: http://www.rane.com/note110.html

Shorting anything here is absolutely wrong. Period. Shorting 3 and 1 together is wrong. I don't care what the tweako cable manufacturer claims, its wrong. It will probably damage something. It will probably introduce a lot of distortion. It should not be done. The correct way to "adapt" this is to take one of the phases and common, and that's now a single ended output (and should be identical to the RCA outputs at that point, which are just taking one of the legs and common from the DACs differential outputs). This is how a proper XLR to SE adapter cable works. More ideally you'd have a transformer in there, but that costs a bit more. There's also SE outputs already on the unit, and putting y-splitters on there would be a lot easier (and probably cheaper) than hooking up to both the XLR and RCA connectors.

 

[misfits73]

The XLR to RCA cables i bought,have pins 3 and 1 connected together and that's the majority of the cables being sold unless you ask the seller to leave pin 3 floating.
So yes, at the moment pins 1 and 2 carry the signal,nothing's shorted.
Any ideas why the sound gets quiter this way?
A chap earlier asked whether or no you can use both XLR and RCA at the same time, yes you can.
This is how i figured out that the XLR output (only when pin 3 is floating) sounds quiter

 

[obobskivich]

The XLR to RCA cables i bought,have pins 3 and 1 connected together and that's the majority of the cables being sold unless you ask the seller to leave pin 3 floating.

Like I said, it doesn't matter what the woo-woo cable companies will sell you, it doesn't change that its wrong. See the Rane Note for how to wire a cable properly for this - you want example "4B."

So yes, at the moment pins 1 and 2 carry the signal,nothing's shorted.

If you're connecting the two pins together, they're shorted. That's a no-no. 1 and 2 should not be "mated" under any circumstance.

Any ideas why the sound gets quiter this way?
A chap earlier asked whether or no you can use both XLR and RCA at the same time, yes you can.
This is how i figured out that the XLR output (only when pin 3 is floating) sounds quiter

Per the specs (refer to the manual as linked) it provides 2Vrms via RCA or XLR, but that's both phases for the XLR, so you're halving that down to 1V by leaving one phase disconnected (which is the correct way to wire things here).

At this point I have to ask: you want an SE output, so why are you not just using the SE output?

 

[misfits73]

Seems you don't understand what i'm saying:
 
"So yes, at the moment pins 1 and 2 carry the signal,nothing's shorted" exactly as shown in fig 4b, i cut pin 3 (floating) which was already connected with pin 1 when i bought the cable.This is how my cable is configured at the moment
 
When you want to use the XLR end as input to an equipment it's ok, but in the DAC's case (which is an output) you have to disconnect pin 3 from pin 1 internally otherwise it will stress and maybe damage the output stage.
The seller does not know how you gonna use the cable and sells it with pins 3&1 connected together (shorted) which is correct as he doesn't know where you will connect the XLR end.Some ask you first if you want it with pin 3 floating or no.
 
Dacmagic does not use pin 3 and seems the same rule applies to the Teac.
 
Using a multimeter and playing a 1KHz test tone, pins 2 and 3 are active, measuring 2V to pin 1.
Some outputs have pin 3 inactive or use a resistor to the ground.
 
By cutting pin 3 the voltage drops to 1V as you correctly said and that is causing the volume to be quiter.
 
The reason of my post was if we should leave pin 3 connected or no.What made me ask that is that the volume on Dacmagic (with the exact same pinout configuration) doesn't drop so i thought i was doing something wrong
 
Cheers

 

[obobskivich]

"So yes, at the moment pins 1 and 2 carry the signal,nothing's shorted" exactly as shown in fig 4b, i cut pin 3 (floating) which was already connected with pin 1 when i bought the cable.This is how my cable is configured at the moment

When you want to use the XLR end as input to an equipment it's ok, but in the DAC's case (which is an output) you have to disconnect pin 3 from pin 1 internally otherwise it will stress and maybe damage the output stage.
The seller does not know how you gonna use the cable and sells it with pins 3&1 connected together (shorted) which is correct as he doesn't know where you will connect the XLR end.Some ask you first if you want it with pin 3 floating or no.

Dacmagic does not use pin 3 and seems the same rule applies to the Teac.

Using a multimeter and playing a 1KHz test tone, pins 2 and 3 are active, measuring 2V to pin 1.
Some outputs have pin 3 inactive or use a resistor to the ground.

By cutting pin 3 the voltage drops to 1V as you correctly said and that is causing the volume to be quiter.

The reason of my post was if we should leave pin 3 connected or no.What made me ask that is that the volume on Dacmagic (with the exact same pinout configuration) doesn't drop so i thought i was doing something wrong

Cheers

The above clarifies what you're trying to do - thanks.

So here's the explanation:

- The TEAC's output is properly balanced, meaning that it has a + and a - phase, with each one being driven by half of the DAC (it has four DAC channels internally). So that's why you're seeing "signal" on two pins. The third pin is "common" for both of those, which is required for balanced transmission.

- You cannot link together any of these three pins, because its a properly balanced signal. Some devices with "balanced outs" are either transformer coupled or psuedo-balanced floating ground (the resistor connection you mention), which changes how you can hook things up (and the Rane note explains how to connect those, and it does allow linking two pins). Lest anyone thing such devices are "lesser" - they still achieve the noise rejection benefits of balanced drive.

Connecting the TEAC's XLR out to single-ended will require taking one of the legs from the balanced drive ++ the common pin and that will get you the SE output, but the voltage will drop because you're giving up one of the phases in doing this. That's why I would preference using the SE outputs, because they will provide 2V as well, instead of the lower voltage you'll get from the converted XLR output. The Dacmagic sounds like it is probably only providing a single phase and has a floating ground or some-such to achieve balanced wiring (the pinout configuration is standardized for XLR audio, but what happens "behind the jack" is far from it).

Another option for connecting the XLR out (and this is "better" if you don't mind spending the few bucks) would be a transformer to couple the TEAC's balanced output to a single ended connection, and shouldn't see the voltage drop at the output as well. Rane mentions a few they make on the Rane note (like the BB 22), but they're probably relatively expensive (and/or only available from certain dealers); Rolls makes one that's not - the HE18 (it would need XLR to TRS cables though).

 

[misfits73]

Stupid question,
how safe is to connect the headphone output jack to a power amplifier and adjust the volume from the DAC?
My preamp is for service at the moment, the DAC's RCA gain is 2V which will damage the speakers if connected straight to the power amp so i thought of adjusting the volume gain from the headphones output.
Headphones out to RCA cable on the power amp inputs-->Foobar at full volume-->Adjusting volume's dac and enjoy music till i get my amp back from service.

Can it be achieved without any damage to the speakers?

Thanks

 

[jeremy205100]

Stupid question,
how safe is to connect the headphone output jack to a power amplifier and adjust the volume from the DAC?
My preamp is for service at the moment, the DAC's RCA gain is 2V which will damage the speakers if connected straight to the power amp so i thought of adjusting the volume gain from the headphones output.
Headphones out to RCA cable on the power amp inputs-->Foobar at full volume-->Adjusting volume's dac and enjoy music till i get my amp back from service.

Can it be achieved without any damage to the speakers?

Thanks

I don't know for certain, but if it were me I wouldn't try this. You're risking damage to all components if something goes wrong.

 

[Hooster]

Stupid question,
how safe is to connect the headphone output jack to a power amplifier and adjust the volume from the DAC?
My preamp is for service at the moment, the DAC's RCA gain is 2V which will damage the speakers if connected straight to the power amp so i thought of adjusting the volume gain from the headphones output.
Headphones out to RCA cable on the power amp inputs-->Foobar at full volume-->Adjusting volume's dac and enjoy music till i get my amp back from service.

Can it be achieved without any damage to the speakers?

Thanks

Absolutely, no problem at all. Just set the volume low and play soft music to begin with, just to be safe. I have my headphone output connected to a power amp all the time.

 

[misfits73]

The input impedance of the power amp is 10K.How would it be better to handle the volume in order to avoid any digital distortion,from foobar or from the headphone's output?

 

[Hooster]

The input impedance of the power amp is 10K.How would it be better to handle the volume in order to avoid any digital distortion,from foobar or from the headphone's output?

There is no digital signal from a headphone output and hence no digital distortion.