Adding pre outs to Denon X2500H

[Aijan]

I have a Denon X2500H, and I'd like to add pre outs, so I examined the the service manuals for Denon X2400H and X2500H, and it looks like the 13 pin ribbon cable (CP401) coming from the input board (on the left side in the first image) to the amp board is an easy place to route the signal to get a full set of pre outs. No soldering appears to be necessary if one splices the cable. Is it really that easy, or am I missing something obvious?

I've included two screenshots from the relevant sections of the service manual. CP401 appears to come after the volume control (NJU72343).

The full service manual is available at https://www.manualslib.com/download/2798295/Denon-Avr-X2500h.html

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

[alex-z]

That depends, do you want the receiver to still have volume control over the pre-outs?

If so, just tapping the ribbon cable will work. If not, you need to intercept the signal before the NJU72343, which is the 8 channel volume control chip.

You can go a step further and have digital pre-outs if you tap the I2S signal leaving the surround decoder before it enters the DAC.

 

[Aijan]

Yes, I still want the receiver to control the volume. Thank you for the quick and thorough response. Much appreciated!

In case someone stumbles on this thread and needs digital pre outs, here's a link to the relevant thread.