New pre-amp has three RCA inputs, need four
proteusmaximus
Posts: 31
I've been thinking about upgrading my 25yo solid state preamp with a new tube pre-amp. I'm still looking, but as I compared specs, I noticed that quite a few new pre-amps (in the price range I can afford) had a limited number of RCA inputs, often with a couple of XLR inputs as well. (I don't have any equipment that uses XLR at the moment.)
This brings up a question that I'm eager to answer: what do you do when you need more RCA inputs than the pre-amp has?
I figure a few of you have probably encountered this problem, so please let me know how you handled it, and thanks!
Bob
This brings up a question that I'm eager to answer: what do you do when you need more RCA inputs than the pre-amp has?
I figure a few of you have probably encountered this problem, so please let me know how you handled it, and thanks!
Bob
Comments
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Hi Bob, is used an option? Remote?
True XLR are nice to have if ever...
Oh, and you could always get an XLR to RCA cable.
Speakers: Polk Lsim, ATC SCM19 v2, NHT SuperzeroSpeaker Cables: DH Labs, Transparent, Wireworld, Canare, Monster: Beer budget, Bose ears -
or an xlr to rca adapter.Amplifiers: Norma IPA 140, MasterSound Compact 845, Ayre v6xe, Consonance Cyber 800
Preamp: deHavilland Ultraverve 3
Dac: Sonnet Morpheus 2, Musical Paradise mp-d2 mkIII
Transport: Jay's Audio CDT2 mk2, Lumin U1 mini
Speakers: Rosso Fiorentino Volterra II
Speaker Cables: Crystal Clear Magnum Opus 2, Organic Audio Organic Reference 2
Interconnects: Crystal Clear Magnum Opus 2, Argento Organic Reference 2, Argento Organic 2
Power Cables: Argento Organic Reference, Synergistic Research Foundation 10 and 12 ga.
Digital cables: Crystal Clear Magnum Opus 2 bnc, Tellurium Q aes, Silnote Audio Poseidon Signature 2 bnc
Puritan PSM156 -
I built this little switching box for a friend. It uses an Elma switch 04-1261. The 04-1264 is the same with gold contacts. The steel bar is just for added weight to keep the box from moving around, when you are switching it.
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Hi Bob, is used an option? Remote?
True XLR are nice to have if ever...
Oh, and you could always get an XLR to RCA cable.
I currently have a used pre-amp and amp (Conrad Johnson SS's). I think this time it's going to be new, just to savor the 'newest' of it all. -
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I built this little switching box for a friend. It uses an Elma switch 04-1261. The 04-1264 is the same with gold contacts. The steel bar is just for added weight to keep the box from moving around, when you are switching it.
Very cool, and indeed an option I have thought about. I really like enclosure (not that the rest isn't nice too). The only reason not to go this route is YAB: Yet Another Box. LOL. I'm space-limited. -
I've been kicking around making a passive pre...
Would be a fun project!Speakers: Polk Lsim, ATC SCM19 v2, NHT SuperzeroSpeaker Cables: DH Labs, Transparent, Wireworld, Canare, Monster: Beer budget, Bose ears -
I use a Shciit sys. It is passive and outside of adding another set of RCA cables, I cannot hear the difference going though it and not going through it.Klipsch The Nines, Audioquest Thunderbird Interconnect, Innuos Zen MK3 W4S recovery, Revolution Audio Labs USB & Ethernet, Border Patrol SE-I, Audioquest Niagara 5000 & Thunder, Cullen Crossover II PC's.
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that is why I haven't made my own passive pre.
Neutral and $49 is hard to beat.I use a Shciit sys. It is passive and outside of adding another set of RCA cables, I cannot hear the difference going though it and not going through it.
Speakers: Polk Lsim, ATC SCM19 v2, NHT SuperzeroSpeaker Cables: DH Labs, Transparent, Wireworld, Canare, Monster: Beer budget, Bose ears -
Luther's solution is nice, but if you're not in the mood to DIY and/or invest in a high-zoot switch box...
An inexpensive source selector switch is... an inexpensive solution.
For the price, you can try one, and -- if you find it too degrading of a signal put through it (relative to mainlining the same source into a preamp input), just sell it, karma it, or pitch it.
They're readily available from the usual suspects
Here's one that's actually fairly expensive and overkill (as an A/V switch, it has three analog channels, L/R/V per source):
https://www.parts-express.com/parts-express-s-video-audio-and-composite-video-selector-switch-5-in-2-out--180-938
EDIT: Here's a more... modest option, from the erstwhile MCM Electronics fine family of products (now part of Newark):
https://www.newark.com/mcm/50-6175/switch-box-four-input-source/dp/39C0728?st=audio switch box
FWIW, I use one of these (the black AZDEN box -- the silver box is a 'passive preamp' with a TVC and a three-source input selector, too), but they're not particularly easy to find on any given day.
009 by Mark Hardy, on Flickr
A similar but somewhat more sophisticated (but also still completely passive) product was offered by dBx -- these are meant primarily for input and output control/dubbing for recording (analog tape recording ) but, I think, can be repurposed as source selectors. They're cheap and plentiful -- I bought one for ca. $25 on eBAY a few years back.
Ol' Radio Shack (bless their hearts) were the go-to for stuff like analog switch boxes in olden times... heck, they might even still offer one nowadays on their website -- who knows?
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R/S A/V switchbox from the early 21st Century
I actually have one of these, too
; used it for quite a while prior to getting that Azden gizmo.
source: http://www.radioshackcatalogs.com/html/2003-04/h009.html
Despite what the catalog copy says, the one here, at least, is just a source selector -- no RF modulator on board -
Can I ask, what 4 devices you plan on hooking up to a pre amp ?HT SYSTEM-
Sony 850c 4k
Pioneer elite vhx 21
Sony 4k BRP
SVS SB-2000
Polk Sig. 20's
Polk FX500 surrounds
Cables-
Acoustic zen Satori speaker cables
Acoustic zen Matrix 2 IC's
Wireworld eclipse 7 ic's
Audio metallurgy ga-o digital cable
Kitchen
Sonos zp90
Grant Fidelity tube dac
B&k 1420
lsi 9's -
Can I ask, what 4 devices you plan on hooking up to a pre amp ?
turntable, tuner, cd player, and television (DVD player and Roku on it) -
No cassette deck? No eight track?
(actually, and in all seriousness, I do still have a cassette deck - dual well! - hooked up to the big-boy hifi upstairs. Just in case, you know?)
(older photo -- but you get the idea )
oh, on topic -- there's always the nuclear option when it comes to source selectors... it will require adapting some of one's patch cords interconnects and/or speaker wires cables to 1/4 inch "phone plugs", but that's a small price to pay for flexibility, right?
011 by Mark Hardy, on Flickr
014 by Mark Hardy, on Flickr -
^^^^Wow! Maybe a bit overkill, but wow.^^^^
For now, I think the best choice will be to buy a couple of RCA to XLR plugs. I've heard good things about the Cardas ones. As I have time to consider my options, I'll continue to think about alternatives and welcome any further opinions you folk may wish to offer. Thanks for your input. -
a bit, yeah
They're not hard to find, nor particularly expensive.
Switchcraft also made some less Baroque switchboxes which may be cheaper if one can find one. Heck, maybe they still do?
The old "audio comparators" much beloved of 1970s hifi stores are expensive (but quite cool).
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proteusmaximus wrote: »
For now, I think the best choice will be to buy a couple of RCA to XLR plugs. I've heard good things about the Cardas ones. As I have time to consider my options, I'll continue to think about alternatives and welcome any further opinions you folk may wish to offer. Thanks for your input.
Sometimes if you have an option to use RCA or balanced connections it is an ether/or thing. You can't select between both. Don't just go by the number of inputs in back, its number of outputs that matter. So look up the specs and make sure you can select them all independently.
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^^^ good point. I was wonderin' whether one input position might be either balanced or unbalanced.
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mhardy6647 wrote: »^^^ good point. I was wonderin' whether one input position might be either balanced or unbalanced.
That is usually how it is. No idea what would happen if you plugged two different inputs in both (and I wouldn't want to try) -
mhardy6647 wrote: »^^^ good point. I was wonderin' whether one input position might be either balanced or unbalanced.
That is usually how it is. No idea what would happen if you plugged two different inputs in both (and I wouldn't want to try)
Like crossing the streams in Ghostbusters.
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If you are looking to replace your pre and your amp. This may be perfect for your needs:
https://forum.polkaudio.com/discussion/187017/belles-250i-integrated-amplifier-w-tubed-preamp-section-ss-power#latestMain Rig:
Antipodes DX > Roon > PS Audio Directstream Jr.>deHavilland Ultraverve 3 >Belles Reference 150a >Harbeth C7 ES3
Second Rig:
Roon> PS Audio Directstream Jr Bridge II > EE Minimax pre (Tutay mods) >Belles 150A Ref >Monitor 5 (Westmassguy-modded) -
For the money might be pretty hard to beat.
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The best suggestion was above ^^^^ by erniejade - For $49
SYS stands for "switch your, er...schtuff." Sys is a simple, 2-input passive preamp. No electronics. No power. No distortion. Just a 2-way switch and a potentiometer.
https://www.schiit.com/products/sys
"Sometimes you have to look to the past to understand where you are going in the future"Anger is just anger. It isn’t good. It isn’t bad. It just is. What you do with it is what matters.
You can use it to build or to destroy. You just have to make the choice. Jim Butcher
Harry / Marietta GA -
sans potentiometer is probably better for an input selector. I doubt that the attenuator in the Schiit Sys provides a constant impedance.
Nothing (including the cheap switchboxes I myself recommended earlier in this thread) adds no distortion when patched into the signal chain. That Schiit thing is fine as a "passive preamp" but is probably too complicated (i.e., having an attenuator on board) for its own good just to add an additional line level, unbalanced source input (IMO, IME, YMMV, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera).
