[priest]

Does anyone know whether there is any reason not to have two amps plugged into a single source at the same time? Eg, taking a digital signal from a CD player and running it to an amp/dac, and at the same time having analog cables plugged into the same CD player, routed to an amp? It's really just a question of whether I can keep that set-up for easy switching between the two (for a/b comparison purposes, or just to have a choice between the two without having to disconnect cables). Would it compromise the performance of either amp? Thanks in advance.

 

[jpelg]

[size=xx-small]These should work[/size]

Vampire RCA splitters available at Headroom.

 

[minimus]

Quote:

Originally Posted by priest /img/forum/go_quote.gif Does anyone know whether there is any reason not to have two amps plugged into a single source at the same time? Eg, taking a digital signal from a CD player and running it to an amp/dac, and at the same time having analog cables plugged into the same CD player, routed to an amp? It's really just a question of whether I can keep that set-up for easy switching between the two (for a/b comparison purposes, or just to have a choice between the two without having to disconnect cables). Would it compromise the performance of either amp? Thanks in advance.

You won't compromise the sound quality of either amp. You are sending a digital signal through a digital cable to a separate DAC, which then converts the signal to analogue before it is amplified by the amp. At the same time, by running RCA interconnects from the CD player to a separate amp, you are obviously using the CD player's DAC for conversion to analogue. When you do A/B comparisons, just be aware that when you compare one amp to another, you may just be hearing differences in the quality of the two DACs being used, as well as differences in quality/sound signature of the digital cable vs. RCA cables being used. If you want to do a fair comparison between amps, I would compare how each amp sounds if you just use the RCA outs on the CD player connected directly to the first amp and then to the second amp and see which amp you prefer. But if this is just being done for convenience, no problem.

 

[Head_case]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jpelg /img/forum/go_quote.gif [size=xx-small]These should work[/size] Vampire RCA splitters available at Headroom.

Excuse me for being so thick, but where do these go?

On the amp? or from the source ---> amp or from the amp ---> speakers?

 

[BryanP]

Not sure why a splitter will be needed if you're using two different outputs of your CD player.

You shouldn't have any degrade in quality, but as minimus said above, if you're going to run a digital signal out to it's own DAC, you'll be listening to A and B differences in respect to the different DACs as well. In reality when you output to the external DAC, you're using your CD player essentially as a transport.

 

[priest]

Thanks alot for your responses guys. I was indeed mainly talking about doing this for convenience. I do realize that when a/b'ing the two set-ups, it would be the "dac/amp" vs the "cd player as dac, plus amp." My concern was whether taking a digital signal off the CD and splitting it to the digital output on one hand and at the same time sending it to the CD player's internal DAC for analog conversion somehow compromised the sound, even if, for instance, I was listening off the dac/amp and the standalone amp was merely plugged into the CD player's analog output without even being turned on. Thanks again.