I’m thinking of buying M24 speakers, a dragonfly cobalt dac and some sort of amp for the M24s. I currently have a Darkvoice 336se hooked up to some old dac running my headphones. I want to be able to use both of these from the same computer through only one dragonfly. What I am currently thinking of doing is running a jack 3.5mm adapter to phono and running it into a splitter of some kind. Running one output to the darkvoice which will drive my headphones. The other going into some amp that will drive my M24s. I’m wondering if the splitter should be active or passive and if it should be before the darkvoice or after(after meaning that the output of the darkvoice runs into the splitter and thereafter to headphones and speaker amp. I don’t even know what amp for the speakers I should get. Have I even got some of it right? I need your advice. Thanks for reading through all that
Would it have to be a splitter or could it be a switcher
Also wouldn’t the peachtree m24 be powered speakers? You could just plug the dragonfly into the darkvoice and then wire the rca outs from the darkvoice into the peachtree m24. The m24 is self powered and can also take input from usb if you want to plug it in separately.
A splitter would be probably be preferred actually.
If I do what you proposed wiring the headset to the Jack and the M24 to the rca, wouldn’t they either both be on all the time or only output to the headset at all time, forcing me to plug out the headphones when I would want to use the M24s. And yes they are powered, don’t know how I forgot to put that into the equation. Thanks
Yes you would need to keep the darkvoice on and if you wanted to you could unplug the headphones to use it. The benefit of using the darkvoice also is though that you can have a physical volume knob for the speakers. And you would have to turn off and on the speakers when you want to use them
You would just put your dragonfly in line out and get something like this
Then you would just get 2 of something like this (linked 2 pack)
And that would do what you needed it to do. I don’t think you would need a powered splitter
I’m not sure I understand completely. If I plug both my speakers and headphones directly into the darkvoice, will only one of them(speakers and headphones) be playing or will only one of them be playing? I would hate to have to unplug my headphones everytime I want to use my speakers? BTW keeping the darkvoice on for both the speakers and headphones is not a problem for me, and being able to use it as a volume knob is just an added bonus
I do get the other solution you just proposed and if I can’t plug it into the darkvoice without it doing what I just described ^, that is probably the best solution.
To sum up. If does the darkvoice output to 2(or all) of its outputs at once or only out of one. Because my old speaker amp would stop outputting to my speakers if I plugged in headphones.
I don’t believe you would have to unplug the headphones for output to the speakers to occur, but I could be wrong, it’s been a while
Ok, well thanks anyway. Will just have to test it myself when I get home
Also another benefit of chaining with the darkvoice is that I think it runs it through the tube, so you get some of that tube sound through your speakers. But I would check to see if it outputs with the headphones plugged in. I don’t know if it will or not. You also don’t want to blow your headphones if you crank the speakers
Yeah, I think that’s probably the way I’m going to do it.
I have another question regarding the darkvoice. It might need its separate post but anyway, here goes: How do I buy new tubes that I know are compatible. I couldn’t really find anything online. If answering this is bothersome then don’t. Although if it isn’t a good video reference or just you writing about it would be great. And thanks again for the help
These threads might be helpful to you
It depends on the amp and tubes for how it will sound, so checking out what others have gone with might help you decide
The peachtree m24 already has a dac and you can run usb into it and then just switch on your computer what audio device you output to. If you must you can run 3.5mm to rca to a cheap rca splitter like
https://www.monoprice.com/Product?c_id=104&cp_id=10429&cs_id=1042904&p_id=7228&seq=1&format=2
on each and run rca into the m24 and the darkvoice. Just seems unnecessary. Or try the rca outs on the back of the darkvoice to the m24s(might only use one output at a time). If you want a set it and forget it type deal I would go from your old dac to rca to y adapter to darkvoice and to m24 and just shut off what your not using. I would probably just go usb to both dacs and switch in the OS, seems easiest and no need to buy anything but i could be missing something. Still good luck with your setup.
The thing is. I am going to buy a dragonfly, the dac I already use is garbo and my computers inbuilt sound card is already used. And buying two dacs at one time it not the way I want to do it.
I think I know what I’m going to do, thanks to M0N, but I’ll have to test it when I get home. I am currently in Japan for another 8 months so don’t wait for it. I will try to see what works best and if am not happy with the results or if I can’t get it to work at all I will consult you experts again. Because I am not that experienced with the high quality audio stuff yet. Anyway, thanks for your help and attention.
What EvilMonkE was saying (I think I also mentioned it as well) is that the m24 has a usb audio input. It has its own dac. So you could just use that and switch in windows for the device
Yes I know, but as you also mentioned running it through the darkvoice first is going to give me some of that sexy tube action. Of course I don’t know what solution I am going to like best without testing it first so I might go for the USB, but I want to try the tube thing as well. I definitely prefer my tubes over directly from my current dac directly. And if that… “tubeyness” translate to the speakers properly I think I will enjoy that more. But I’ll just have to test it
That’s cool but you wouldn’t have to buy 2 dacs since the m24 has a built in dac. You could get a balnced dac like the su-8 or sdac-b and run xlr to rca for one thing and straight rca for the other if you want to run them off the same dac. But if you are set on getting the dragonfly you can use spliters or use the rca out on the darkvoice. Still when you get everything i would test the dragonfly against the built in dac on the m24 and see which one you prefer, also see if the m24 takes to tubes well not all speakers do. It’s always good to experiment with your setup. Still good luck with everything but i don’t expect to get an update for 8 months lol
I don’t think I quite understand the setup you are explaining. And I am not necessarily settled on the dragonfly, I am just not that strong in the dac world, so as long as the other dac can play MQA(my father has an archive of it) and it is at least as good and not too much more expensive i can easily go for another one.
Is it maybe possible to talk to you about this instead of writing because it is hard to keep it all straight as it is now
not sure about mqa stuff as i don’t use it but if the dragonfly supports it then i guess that’s a good reason to get it. Not sure about the smsl dac. I’m about to go out to dinner but i’ll look up to see if the balanced dacs support mqa when i get back. have a good night.
The SMSL M500 has mqa with two outputs and balanced but is rather pricey. Also free to talk on discord if you want (on my hifiguides profile). MQA is a real mixed bag for me though, as I don’t know if I like it or dislike it
I use the darkvoice and have swapped tubes for it. I don’t have the info handy but will make some tube recommendations for you when i get back home and have the numbers in hand along with vendors. I just wanted to warn you tho that even tho i really enjoy using the darkvoice as a pre-amp for my speakers be warned that there is a very good chance you may have some hum. It’s not particularly perceptible once you start to crank ip the volume but it IS there nonetheless, at least with my particular amplifier. I did everything possible to minimize it and its just in the pre-outs NOT on the headphone stage. Once i burned in the tubes they all run silent on the headphone stage. All of them required almost a week each of burn in. I will tell you exactly which ones in a few days.