• WANTED: Happy members who like to discuss audio and other topics related to our interest. Desire to learn and share knowledge of science required. There are many reviews of audio hardware and expert members to help answer your questions. Click here to have your audio equipment measured for free!

Signal Chain Sanity Check

Preslav

New Member
Joined
Mar 11, 2022
Messages
1
Likes
0
Hey everyone,

As you see first post by me, but I have been feverishly reading reviews on here. I’ve been in the recording studio business for a while, but just finally setting up my listening room after successfully avoiding it for 20 years. Anyway…I need a sanity check on how I plan on connecting everything and hoping someone could notice if I’m missing something major.

Music sources:
Turntable (EMT 950 w/ MC cartridge, which has a built in pre-amp and outputs balanced Line level XLR)
DAC (haven’t bought one yet, but looking at Okto Dac8 Stereo if they become available again, or something cheaper if not)

Preamp
Freya S (thinking of this as a line stage and source selector between the turntable / dac)

Amp
Mckintosh MC7200 solid state / balanced XLR ins

Speakers
Altec 604s w/ Mastering Labs crossovers

Headphone Amp
Haven’t picked one…kind of depends on this post, but looking at some options from Schiit / Kinki or something in that range

Headphones
Audeze LCD-X


I’d like to be able to switch music source (with remote if possible, but not essential) and then either listen through headphones or speakers but keeping everything balanced and using XLR the whole way. Nothing too complicated, right?

SO…this is how imagine the connections:


Turntable + DAC —> Freya S —> Headphone Amp —> Power Amp —> Speakers

Does that work?

Or Should I split the signal from the Freya S into two paths: one to headphone amp and one to power amp.

And lastly, Should the Freya (or any preamp I use in its place) be passive, or would it be a problem if it was active?


Thanks for the help!
 
Top Bottom