zepplock
Active Member
The ideal headphone setup would be without Yamaha in the audio chain.
Use any source into THX and then headphones.
Use any source into THX and then headphones.
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YAMAHA A-S701 - tear-down, thoughts about the internals & few measurements
- Thread starter trl
- Start date
From what I've read the Yamaha has a decent DAC, and all my music sources are wired through the amp except when I plug my headphones straight into my laptop.
zepplock
Active Member
For it to work, you need a line out. It does not look like it has one, judging by connectors on the back.
It has several line outs? It is working, I just found it odd that I had to raise the gain to 3 on the THX to get decent volume. And I didn't find any difference from going straight out the headphone jack on the Yamaha, guess I was expecting more wow with the THX.
zepplock
Active Member
nonne of RCA jacks on the back are labeled line out. Do you have a manual?
restorer-john
Grand Contributor
You do know tape outs are line outs? The answer has been given by me several posts up the thread.
OP
- Thread Starter
- #207
"I ran the USB-B digital interface at digital full scale (0dBFs) which yielded 2Vrms from the analog outputs to see how the ESS Sabre DAC section performed" - taken from https://www.audioholics.com/amplifi...1-amplifier-review/yamaha-a-s801-measurements.
So, you may need to use a volt-meter and measure amp's Line-Out while feeding the USB port with 0dB 1kHz sinewave (speakers disconnected or volume knob near to MIN.).
So, you may need to use a volt-meter and measure amp's Line-Out while feeding the USB port with 0dB 1kHz sinewave (speakers disconnected or volume knob near to MIN.).
zepplock
Active Member
I saw it, but those are not like normal 2V line outs, right?
restorer-john
Grand Contributor
Well, they should be, but it looks like Yamaha is playing a few games with levels. I have a AS-300 here, so may see what's up with their tape out implementation.
(the AS-301/501/701/801 all seem to share the same basics in the front end)
MacCali
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No one is saying the internal dac is bad, but I am certain you can find that very same dac on a stand alone unit for a great price and most likely implemented better than it. Even if not, it's not the dac that's the issue, it's the output power that's 10 times less than what it should be. That's why even with a more than adequate headphone amp youre encountering this issue.
Not a huge issue honestly, unless youre noticing sound degradation, but to my knowledge running on amp on lower gain settings does provide a cleaner sonic performance, I may be wrong. Not an expert here as mentioned previously, but with an amp like 789 you probably wont notice the difference.
Ok, thanks for clearing that up. Issue with getting a separate dac is all my music sources filter through my amp: Turntable, tape deck, mini Disc, CCA. How would you add a dac into the chain?
You can use any of the unused line input with the external DAC. What is CCA?
CCA-Chromecast Audio
I'm picturing Various sources >Yamaha>Dac>THX>Hd6xx in my mind the Yamaha has already fed everything through it's Dac at that point and don't see the point of the external Dac. And if I put the Dac before the Yamaha how do I input all my sources? I'm obviously missing something very basic in my thinking of how it would work?
I don't think you missed anything except you may not know that if you connect the output of an analog output of an external dac to the analog input of the A-S701, the signal would not go through the A-S701's build in DAC. There would be need because the input signal is already analog.
If you use the CD analog input with an external DAC then you will get the best theoretical performance, determined by the quality of the external DAC because the A-S701 has the so called pure direct and CD direct amp feature that according to the manual. Whether you will hear a difference or not I have no idea.
On page 16 of the Owner's manual:
Ok I get that the analog out from the Dac won't get processed. But how do I run everything thing through the Dac first? Or do people switch out the inputs on the back of the Dac every time they change to a different music source?
mhardy6647
Grand Contributor
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Some DACs have multiple inputs. Mine, for example
(it is elderly, though, by all y'all's standards)
Alternatively, it would be straightforward, I would think to build a switchbox for, e.g., RCA-connector-terminated coaxial cable (like the old serial port or parallel port switch boxes some of us remember all too well!) that would pass the digital signals well enough. I don't know if there are any commercial switchboxes for digital use -- but there were and still are myriad such products for analog audio (and, in ancient times, also video) signals.
The ancient ones might work fine for digital applications: 1) it's a testable hypothesis and 2) The perfect is the enemy of the good. Here's an analog example, e.g.,
You can do it with some external devices but to me that would be too much work for nothing.
Put it this way, if I had the A-S701 (that I don't and won't..) I would just leave all digital source devices such as CCA the way they are connected now unless you have one that is of very high spec, that is much higher spec than the internal PCM5102A, then you should use that device to do its own conversion and connect its analog output to one of the analog input on the A-S701.
On top of that I would simply use a higher quality external dac to do the same function as the "USB DAC" that is only offered in the A-S801 but not the A-S701. A $150 external dac (or even less) will have much better spec and can play more HD files than the very average quality ES9010K2M in the A-S801. Again, I am not suggesting if you do all that you will hear "better sound quality" because they would depend on other factors. But on the bench the external dac connected to the A-S701 analog input (specially if you engaged the so called CD direct amp and/or pure direct functions) will give you better THD+N performance on paper, verifiable on the test bench. Practically speaking an easy way to achieve the theoretically better sound quality would be to use the external dac to perform the usb dac function, for details you can read up on the A-S801 owner's manual.
audio_tony
Addicted to Fun and Learning
I've used a composite video switchbox successfully for this. It needs to be a decent brand though, with a well regulated power supply to minimise the introduction of jitter.
Ok thanks for all the replies, I'm not going to add any more components to the system. This is in my living room and not a dedicated music room/office so have to keep it within reason. As you can see I don't really have the room or want to keep stacking components on top of each other.
I guess it is what it is regarding the lower voltage coming out of the line out from the Yamaha, and I doubt my 55 year old ears will hear much of a difference adding a new dac.
I guess it is what it is regarding the lower voltage coming out of the line out from the Yamaha, and I doubt my 55 year old ears will hear much of a difference adding a new dac.
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