darrell;692319 Wrote: > You are right, the signal path in a power amplifier will be shorter - no > volume control or source selectors. But my opinion is that this is not > too important (others may have a different take, of course). I am one of those who believes in using only a power amp. The fundamental rationale is that of all the electronic components there are in a HiFi system, the preamp is the least transparent and it's therefore worth eliminating it.
The crucial step in connecting a Squeezebox directly to a power amp is setting what's known as the "gain staging" right. To aim here is to arrange things so that when the Squeezebox's own volume control is at maximum, the playback is as loud as you'll ever want (but no louder). Then just use the Squeezebox's volume control for day-to-day adjustment. The only time you'll turn it down so far that it may affect the quality will be when you're just playing stuff quietly as background, in which case the slight loss of quality isn't really an issue. Some power amps *do* have volume controls, some others have presets you can adjust. Just set these once and you're done. For power amps that don't have volume controls, you will probably need to insert some passive attenuators, which you can either buy (typically a few tens of dollars/pounds/euros) or make yourself (for a few dollars/pounds/euros). See this wiki page for a more detailed discussion: http://wiki.slimdevices.com/index.php/Connecting_directly_to_a_power_amplifier -- cliveb Transporter -> ATC SCM100A ------------------------------------------------------------------------ cliveb's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=348 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=93776 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/audiophiles
