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Chaos_Therum
7
Jan 15, 2018
So I've got a yamaha rv-992 amp with some shitty home theater speakers connected to it but with a really good powered sub (yst-sw45). So my question would be should I get dac and then just run from the dac to the sub out to the speakers or should I stick with my current amp and just remove the crappy speakers and replace them with these. Or the other option would be to put the dac between the amp and the computer then run the amp out to the sub and the new speakers. I'm new to this whole audio thing and I'm not exactly sure what to do with this. I've never owned powered speakers before this other than my sub.
FYI currently I'm contemplating this dac: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01E6T56CM/_encoding=UTF8?coliid=I1BBNZ0IN3YB1D&colid=3CV22EAK1WXRO&psc=1
suby4me
40
Jan 19, 2018
Chaos_TherumThe way I have my speakers setup is that I have my DAC (I have a schitt modi 2: http://www.schiit.com/products/modi-2 ) that is plugged to my pc (source) through usb. Then from my DAC I have it hooked to my amp, which can be used as a preamp so I can control the volume from there rather than behind the speakers. From my amp, I have it outputting to my sub. From the sub, I have it output each to the speakers. So in a sense: PC -> DAC -> Amp -> Sub -> Speakers. Hope that gives you an idea of how to setup your stuff. I'm not familiar with the DAC you posted but it appears to have decent reviews on Amazon. Although I'd prob explore some websites such as head-fi as they give really good reviews on particular products. It was from them that I went with schiit.
bdleslie
19
Jan 26, 2018
Chaos_TherumUnless your amp has line-level, aka preamp, outputs, which is rare these days, I think that powered speakers are not what you want. It sounds like you are wanting to run your amp's powered outputs (typically banana-plug) into these JBL's, which would destroy the JBL's, when what you need is a headphone out or preamp out. The DAC you linked does have volume control, so if your only audio source is your computer, then you could bypass your Yamaha altogether and split off the DAC line outs with y-adapters, one L/R pair to the JBLs and the other L/R pair going to your sub.
As you can see, using powered speakers in a world which is oriented around home theater receivers makes for some difficult choices. I would say the only sensible way to use these JBL's is if you have only one sound-source (for most people, a computer or a computer feeding a stereo DAC) and know that you will never need surround sound.
Chaos_Therum
7
Jan 26, 2018
bdleslieI got some advice from some people on an audiophile discord they told me what to look for. My amp has line-level outputs so that ended up working out great. Now my only issue is defeating the constant background noise from the dac. Sadly it seems that I'll need a different dac with a dedicated power input. Thanks for the help.
bdleslie
19
Jan 26, 2018
Chaos_TherumFor a computer, I really the Audioquest Dragonfly DAC. It has an internal 64-position 1% resistor volume control which automatically slaves to Windows system volume control -- so, you get perfect channel balance because you are using a resistor network rather than a potentiometer, plus you are not "throwing away bits" by using system volume control. It has great audiophile press reviews, such as Stereophile magazine, if that matters you.
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