11 | dac8 Stereo O
wner’s
Manual
| okto research
and electromagnetic interference, which would otherwise be injected into the signal,
harmless.
If you need to interface the dac8 with a legacy pre-amplifier or a power amplifier that has
single-ended inputs only, there are three methods to do so:
1)
A solid-state conversion circuit, for example the Neurochrome Universal Buffer
2)
Audio transformers like Lundahl LL1584-3FXPHM
3)
A special adapter cable with fl
oating pin 3, like “Benchmark XLRF to RCA cable for analog
audio with pin 3 floating”. The cable does not perform actual signal conversion; instead,
it only uses one half of the balanced output from the dac8 without shorting the other
half to ground. This method will result in a loss of performance, but it is recommended
as a cost-effective way to connect subwoofers.
Warning: We strongly discourage the use of balanced-to-unbalanced cables and
converters. Doing so will result in significantly decreased analog performance due to the
short they present to the output of the dac8 Stereo's analog stage, potentially overloading
it and risking damage after long-term use with high signal levels. Warranty does not apply
to units with analog circuitry damaged by using XLR to RCA cables and converters.
Headphone output
The headphone analog output, available on the front panel via a 6.3 mm (1/4") TRS
connector, provides a 4.2 V RMS full-scale voltage level, up to 120 mA linear current, and
less than 100 mOhm output impedance.
It is suitable for a majority of headphones and earphones, ranging from 16 Ohm IEMs to
large 600 Ohm open-back headphones. As mentioned in a previous chapter, plugging in
the headphone jack does not mute the main outputs.