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  #1  
Old 11-07-2021, 05:45 PM
Jack in Wilmington's Avatar
Jack in Wilmington Jack in Wilmington is offline
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Default It's Time For A New Preamplifier

Well I recently purchased a new headphone amp so I could upgrade to a balanced headphone experience. The trouble is what I thought would work in the connections, sadly did not work. Now my wife has watched me working on this for a month and yesterday she said, and I love when she says this, "What do you need to make it work". What I needed is a preamp with dual input connections. She says, "What is this going to cost" I tell her, mid 4K range. She gives me the green light.

Right now I'm looking at the Bryston BP-17 or the Pass Labs XP-12 (she might go that high) ($5800).

Anything else I should check out? Thanks, Guys
__________________
Speakers........Dynaudio Contour 1.8 Mk II
Amp...............Pass Labs X150.5
PreAmp..........McIntosh C2600
Sources..........Music Hall MMF 9.3 Walnut w/ Goldring
Eroica LX MC Cartridge
Phono Pre...…..Sutherland Insight

CD Player Rotel RCD-1072
Record Cleaning Machine...….Okki Nokki
DAC................Bryston BDA-3
Headphones.....Drop + Dan Clark Audio Ether CX /
Sennheiser HD-660S
Headphone Amp.....Bryston BHA-1
Cables....Amp to preamp - Morrow MA4
Preamp to DAC - Morrow MA4
Preamp to Headphone Amp - Morrow MA2
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  #2  
Old 11-07-2021, 07:22 PM
Kal Rubinson Kal Rubinson is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jack in Wilmington View Post
What I needed is a preamp with dual input connections.
What do you mean by this?
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  #3  
Old 11-07-2021, 07:31 PM
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Jack in Wilmington Jack in Wilmington is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Kal Rubinson View Post
What do you mean by this?
Sorry about that Kal, bad choice of words.

I need a preamp with two balanced input connections. My Cary only has one.
__________________
Speakers........Dynaudio Contour 1.8 Mk II
Amp...............Pass Labs X150.5
PreAmp..........McIntosh C2600
Sources..........Music Hall MMF 9.3 Walnut w/ Goldring
Eroica LX MC Cartridge
Phono Pre...…..Sutherland Insight

CD Player Rotel RCD-1072
Record Cleaning Machine...….Okki Nokki
DAC................Bryston BDA-3
Headphones.....Drop + Dan Clark Audio Ether CX /
Sennheiser HD-660S
Headphone Amp.....Bryston BHA-1
Cables....Amp to preamp - Morrow MA4
Preamp to DAC - Morrow MA4
Preamp to Headphone Amp - Morrow MA2
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  #4  
Old 11-07-2021, 07:32 PM
clpetersen clpetersen is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jack in Wilmington View Post
.

Right now I'm looking at the Bryston BP-17 or the Pass Labs XP-12 (she might go that high) ($5800).

Anything else I should check out? Thanks, Guys
I am going to guess you mean dual output. I have the BP-17 cubed. It is set-up for driving a headphone amp using balanced outs- there is an internal jumper that sets one of the two balanced outs to 'fixed' so you can use the volume control on the headphone amp and mute the BP-17. Easy to do - I have pictures from Mike Pickett at Bryston if you go that route.
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Main - Roon on Synology/Sonos Port/SoTM Neo endpoints; Chord Qutest, Bryston BP-17 cubed with phono option; EAT C-sharp with Ortofon Bronze MM, Bryston cubed Amplifier; Revel F126Be on custom Atocha stands; interconnects by WireWorld, furniture by Atocha Design 'Phones Audeze LCD-3, Bryston BHA-1; Office: Sonos/Roon; OPPO HA-1, Naim NAP100 and PSB Mini-C. Media Room:, Samsung QLED QN90 series, Sonos, OPPO 205, ATI N-core driving KEF LS-50's with REL subs; furniture by Glassisimo; Kids - U-turn for vinyl, Sonos Play5; Summer Shack - Sonos, vintage Pioneer, Dynaudio Special 40's.
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Old 11-07-2021, 07:40 PM
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W9TR W9TR is offline
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I have a couple of McIntosh preamps with dual outputs that are switchable with output specific power control. So output 1 drives the power amps and output 2 runs the headphone amp. I usually leave the power amps off since I listen to headphones a lot. I turn the power amps on from the preamp. Works like a charm.
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  #6  
Old 11-07-2021, 10:37 PM
Jack in Wilmington's Avatar
Jack in Wilmington Jack in Wilmington is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by clpetersen View Post
I am going to guess you mean dual output. I have the BP-17 cubed. It is set-up for driving a headphone amp using balanced outs- there is an internal jumper that sets one of the two balanced outs to 'fixed' so you can use the volume control on the headphone amp and mute the BP-17. Easy to do - I have pictures from Mike Pickett at Bryston if you go that route.
My balanced outputs on the Cary preamp go to my Pass Amp. The Bryston DAC will be connected to the new preamps balanced input. The Burson headphone amp will be connected to the new preamp's balanced outputs. That is funny how we use different configurations to achieve the same goal.
__________________
Speakers........Dynaudio Contour 1.8 Mk II
Amp...............Pass Labs X150.5
PreAmp..........McIntosh C2600
Sources..........Music Hall MMF 9.3 Walnut w/ Goldring
Eroica LX MC Cartridge
Phono Pre...…..Sutherland Insight

CD Player Rotel RCD-1072
Record Cleaning Machine...….Okki Nokki
DAC................Bryston BDA-3
Headphones.....Drop + Dan Clark Audio Ether CX /
Sennheiser HD-660S
Headphone Amp.....Bryston BHA-1
Cables....Amp to preamp - Morrow MA4
Preamp to DAC - Morrow MA4
Preamp to Headphone Amp - Morrow MA2

Last edited by Jack in Wilmington; 11-08-2021 at 09:04 AM.
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  #7  
Old 11-07-2021, 11:54 PM
Jack in Wilmington's Avatar
Jack in Wilmington Jack in Wilmington is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by clpetersen View Post
I am going to guess you mean dual output. I have the BP-17 cubed. It is set-up for driving a headphone amp using balanced outs- there is an internal jumper that sets one of the two balanced outs to 'fixed' so you can use the volume control on the headphone amp and mute the BP-17. Easy to do - I have pictures from Mike Pickett at Bryston if you go that route.
You're correct. I got all twisted up and confused. I did mean outputs. Sorry
__________________
Speakers........Dynaudio Contour 1.8 Mk II
Amp...............Pass Labs X150.5
PreAmp..........McIntosh C2600
Sources..........Music Hall MMF 9.3 Walnut w/ Goldring
Eroica LX MC Cartridge
Phono Pre...…..Sutherland Insight

CD Player Rotel RCD-1072
Record Cleaning Machine...….Okki Nokki
DAC................Bryston BDA-3
Headphones.....Drop + Dan Clark Audio Ether CX /
Sennheiser HD-660S
Headphone Amp.....Bryston BHA-1
Cables....Amp to preamp - Morrow MA4
Preamp to DAC - Morrow MA4
Preamp to Headphone Amp - Morrow MA2
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  #8  
Old 11-08-2021, 01:34 AM
JMD JMD is offline
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Wyred 4 Sound STP-SE Stage 2 has two sets of balanced inputs and outputs for $3749.
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Old 11-08-2021, 01:21 PM
clpetersen clpetersen is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by W9TR View Post
I have a couple of McIntosh preamps with dual outputs that are switchable with output specific power control. So output 1 drives the power amps and output 2 runs the headphone amp. I usually leave the power amps off since I listen to headphones a lot. I turn the power amps on from the preamp. Works like a charm.
Nice. The Bryston has a trigger 2 output, but that can be only set to come on when specific input sources are selected.

The fixed (non-mutable) balanced output and mute button does much the same thing excepting the power amp is on if you are using the trigger function to control the power amp instead of the front panel switch. I do not often use headphones, so this works well for me - not as flexible as the McIntosh though.
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Main - Roon on Synology/Sonos Port/SoTM Neo endpoints; Chord Qutest, Bryston BP-17 cubed with phono option; EAT C-sharp with Ortofon Bronze MM, Bryston cubed Amplifier; Revel F126Be on custom Atocha stands; interconnects by WireWorld, furniture by Atocha Design 'Phones Audeze LCD-3, Bryston BHA-1; Office: Sonos/Roon; OPPO HA-1, Naim NAP100 and PSB Mini-C. Media Room:, Samsung QLED QN90 series, Sonos, OPPO 205, ATI N-core driving KEF LS-50's with REL subs; furniture by Glassisimo; Kids - U-turn for vinyl, Sonos Play5; Summer Shack - Sonos, vintage Pioneer, Dynaudio Special 40's.
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  #10  
Old 11-08-2021, 10:11 PM
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Having owned a Bryston BP17cubed for about a year, I would go with the XP-12. I found the BP17 to be rather 'uninvolving' with the various amps I used. Will guess Pass XP-12 will have a synergy with your amp that the Bryston may not.
As always, YMMV.
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