Muy bonito.
I spent like 10 minutes playing with their configuration tool.
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You shouldnt of told me about the toolâŚ
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Those passive pres look ridiculous. Iâm in love, but Iâm afraid to go looking for a price lol
My 2 channel setup relies on a preamp (Parasound Halo P5), mainly to control the volume of the power amp. Of course, it is useful for switching inputs, but if I wanted I guess I could just plug and unplug source components (nobody wants that). It certainly affects the sound, but mostly in a positive way. It also contains a capable Burr-Brown DAC and OK phonostage. It acts as a home theater bypass to allow me to use my main power amp and 2 channel speakers for my home theater front speakers as well as control the sub. It also has tone controls (GASP!), which are useful for low listening levels in the absence of loudness control. I love having the P5 in my system and need some preamp unless I switch to an Integrated amp setup.
I only have one headphone amp that needs a preamp. My xDuoo MT 604. It is a fun little balanced-only headphone amp that has a ridiculous gain. The volume knobs (one per channel) need to be barely cracked open to avoid hearing damage. The HD6XX is as loud as I can stand at about 20% gain. I have put this into the chain with a XLR splitter on the P5 output to use as a way to attenuate the ampâs gain and that works well enough. I prefer to use it on my desk in another room though, so I am looking for a reasonably priced passive(?), balanced preamp for the MT 604. I have considered an in-line XLR 10dB attenuator, but the ones I have seen are really long and not meant to stick out the back of a component (made to go inline on cables). I would love ideas!
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A way to get what youâre looking for an potentially upgrade your sound while in the process would be to get a DAC with a volume control. You can probably find something of much better quality than whatever is built into your Parasound now and dedicate that DAC to the xDuoo amp.
Welcome to the forum BTW
Possibly, but you no longer really have any extra I/O if you use that, and the halo p5 is pretty good for the money, I think youâd need to get quite a good internal volume to match itâs preamp capability
My apologies the the Parasound Halo P5 then. lol
@Flotsammy pay considerably more attention to whatever @M0N says. Just confirm though that youâre looking to extricate the amp from your Parasound pre as your current solution cause thatâs how I read it? So my response was assuming you wanted something to replace it.
Thanks db and MON. Right now, the xDuoo is on my desk and being fed by a Bifrost 2. I love my Bifrost, so I donât want to remove that. I think what I would like is a balanced version of the Schiit SYS. Just a simple passive pre I think. I havenât stumbled across a balanced passive yet and donât want to invest a lot for such an inexpensive amp (even though it sounds NICE).
Here you go:
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Thanks GZF! SOoo close! That looks awesome and would do exactly what I need, but I donât need (want to pay for) the switcher. That is like 4x the cost of the amp. If it was 1/2 the cost with only one input, I might do it.
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I think given what the MT604 costs a Goldpoint passive pre is a bit overkill.
You probably donât want to go much higher than a Mackie big knob, though youâd have to pick up specific cables for it.
I think you are right. Is the Mackie balanced, or are the cables you mentioned RCA to XLR?
Ah misread what was going on lol, cheap passive balanced preamp, what about one of these, personally like it more than the big knob and itâs not much more
The last thought @Flotsammy there comes a time when we realize that we made a mistake with a purchase or it doesnât really fit your use case and maybe just swap your amp. Unless you love it and want to keep it, throwing more money and cables at a solution where you may be better off selling the xDuoo and putting that money into another amp with variable gain.
@M0N I canât believe you had me apologizing to a preamp. lol
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Yesss MON! $99 is perfect. Seeing that made me think I could use my Scarlett 212, but I wonder if it would introduce any coloration. Then again the MT604 is as colorful as a rainbow. Thanks!
Itâs balanced, you need XLR to Balanced 1/4 Inch cables.
But if @M0N likes the Palmer better Iâd look at that.
Edit - looking at the wiring diagram in the manual, I donât think itâs actually balanced.
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You could if you were using it as the dac, but otherwise it wouldnât work as intended for what you need
The makie is not fully balanced no, but it can take in and put out balanced iirc?
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