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Headphone Amp connection oddity...

petercook

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Sep 28, 2021
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Hi, I hope I can get some advice on the following.
I have purchased a headphone amp and to connect it into my system I decided the most sensible route for me was to connect it to my Integrated Amp's 'Tape Out' socket as this is a loop out bypassing the volume/tone controls. Out of interest for some reason I decided to measure the resistance of the 2 RCA cables I was using (CD Player to Integrated Amp & Integrated Amp to Headphone Amp. The cables are both the same and measured around 4ohms (both cables connected to each other were around 4ohms ) - However if measure the two open ends when they pass through the Integrated Amp (as described above) the outer still measures 4ohms but the centre is now around 580ohms.
Is this because the tape output sounds like its being controlled by a relay so possibly has some protection circuit. I am guessing this measurement doesn't really matter?

The other option I had was to have an RCA splitter at the CD output socket and run one lead to the Integrated Amp and one to the Headphone Amp. Any thoughts generally on connecting would be very welcome. (probably doesn't make any difference either way but worth asking)
Thanks
 

AnalogSteph

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It is quite common for the tape out to include some output series resistors, presumably so that a rogue tape input would not wreak havoc on signal playback (not all electronics are well-behaved even when turned off) - the amp input stage appears to be all passive, as used to be common at one point. In any case, both solutions ought to be roughly equivalent.

On a side note, you're still on a CD player as your primary means of playback? That seems a tad cumbersome by modern standards, or in fact those of 10 years ago. All I can imagine is that you might have a large number of classical recordings (tagging those can be a bit of a pain) and a CD player of the more convenient kind as they were common in the early '90s. It would be necessary to know what you have in order to gauge the potential for improvements.
 
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petercook

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Thanks for the response. I think for now I will keep the headphone amp running on the 'Tape Out' but might look at the splitter route later as from what you have said that will also work without causing any problems.

Your side note on CDs did make me laugh though. I still primarily use CD because I prefer it, I like the physical process involved and the sound quality. I have ripped all my CDs and do stream them round the house for casual listening.
 
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