Aloha,
since weeks I am looking for a decent solution to connect active speakers and headphones to my PC.
(Parenthesis: Actually, I am temporarily using a Marantz SR-4001 with 2x Nubert Nubox 310 and a Denon AH-D2000 in my home office on the PC. The Marantz and the Nuberts should go back to the living room and be replaced by active speakers (I think the Dynaudio BM5 MKIII could fit) and it is time for the Denon to be replaced or refurbished (unsure, yet).)
I want to use a balanced connection to the active speakers and I want to be able to switch easily between speakers and headphones, i.e. without switching on/off particular devices or plugging the headphones in/out and I also do not want to change the volume each time when I switch (IMHO the best solution for this would be to switch the sound device from Windows by nircmd directly which only works if you chose a separate output way for speakers and headphones, of course).
The first recommendation I got was a Questyle CMA400i which I kept in mind but as it is a bit expensive and I am unsure about possibly damaging the speakers (when switching back from headphones to speakers on high volume) I began looking for reasonable alternatives. By the way, the RME ADI-2 DAC is not a reasonable option as I do not need its equalizer function on the PC, at all - the app Equalizer APO can fulfill this part.
Therefore, I was pointed to the Behringer UMC204HD which is rather ugly, likely needs an additional headphones amp and only has faked balanced outputs.
Looking further, I stumbled across the Khadas Tone Board and the JDS Labs Atom Amp as very good solution for the output to my headphones. A good replacement for the Khadas Tone Board would be the Topping D10 as it comes completely build with a case and a display.Furthermore, a reasonable replacement for the combination of KTB/D10+Atom would be the Topping DX3 Pro which has slightly less power than the Atom. The Topping DX3 Pro would not be a reasonable replacement as it has less amp power than the Atom and it's DAC is not as good as the D10.
But there still was no solution for the balanced connection to the active speakers. So, I found the SMSL SU-8. As it costs more than twice than the D10 the SU-8 only makes sense if you can get rid of the second DAC for the headphones which is possible if you use it as DAC for both (speakers and headphones). Then I would prefer to use the SMSL SH-8 as headphone amp (which would also look better on the desktop). But it seems there is no easy way of switching between speakers and headphones which would result in needing an additional DAC (and amp, as appropriate) for the headphones.
Now, reaching a price region of around 400 to 500 EUR the Topping DX7s becomes interesting where you can switch the output per remote control - but I am still concerned about the mentioned problem of possibly damaging my speakers (as with the CMA400i).
Perhaps someone here has another suggestion?
Thanks in advance and esp. @amirm for his exceptional effort helping newbies to understand what is worth buying
since weeks I am looking for a decent solution to connect active speakers and headphones to my PC.
(Parenthesis: Actually, I am temporarily using a Marantz SR-4001 with 2x Nubert Nubox 310 and a Denon AH-D2000 in my home office on the PC. The Marantz and the Nuberts should go back to the living room and be replaced by active speakers (I think the Dynaudio BM5 MKIII could fit) and it is time for the Denon to be replaced or refurbished (unsure, yet).)
I want to use a balanced connection to the active speakers and I want to be able to switch easily between speakers and headphones, i.e. without switching on/off particular devices or plugging the headphones in/out and I also do not want to change the volume each time when I switch (IMHO the best solution for this would be to switch the sound device from Windows by nircmd directly which only works if you chose a separate output way for speakers and headphones, of course).
The first recommendation I got was a Questyle CMA400i which I kept in mind but as it is a bit expensive and I am unsure about possibly damaging the speakers (when switching back from headphones to speakers on high volume) I began looking for reasonable alternatives. By the way, the RME ADI-2 DAC is not a reasonable option as I do not need its equalizer function on the PC, at all - the app Equalizer APO can fulfill this part.
Therefore, I was pointed to the Behringer UMC204HD which is rather ugly, likely needs an additional headphones amp and only has faked balanced outputs.
Looking further, I stumbled across the Khadas Tone Board and the JDS Labs Atom Amp as very good solution for the output to my headphones. A good replacement for the Khadas Tone Board would be the Topping D10 as it comes completely build with a case and a display.
But there still was no solution for the balanced connection to the active speakers. So, I found the SMSL SU-8. As it costs more than twice than the D10 the SU-8 only makes sense if you can get rid of the second DAC for the headphones which is possible if you use it as DAC for both (speakers and headphones). Then I would prefer to use the SMSL SH-8 as headphone amp (which would also look better on the desktop). But it seems there is no easy way of switching between speakers and headphones which would result in needing an additional DAC (and amp, as appropriate) for the headphones.
Now, reaching a price region of around 400 to 500 EUR the Topping DX7s becomes interesting where you can switch the output per remote control - but I am still concerned about the mentioned problem of possibly damaging my speakers (as with the CMA400i).
Perhaps someone here has another suggestion?
Thanks in advance and esp. @amirm for his exceptional effort helping newbies to understand what is worth buying
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