Currently upgrading my desk, and finally adding some passive speakers to replace my logitechs. I bought the SMSL SA300 to power my speakers, however I don’t have a dedicated dac. Currently I own a k5 pro headphone amplifier. I think my ideal setup would be to sell the k5 pro and have one DAC that feeds both the SMSL sa300 and potentially a separate headphone amp(SA200 potentially).
So I’m a sucker for features even if I don’t use them. I like the idea of having two outputs, a remote, bluetooth, in that order. The idea would be that my dac will be able to swap between headphone and speaker amps with just a remote. Bluetooth isn’t really gonna be ever used, especially since the SA300 has bluetooth, and the only time I would stream music is to my speakers, not headphones.
Price range is ideally under $250 unless I’m blown away by something. I’m currently looking at the SMSL su-8 and SMSL m200 since they have RCA and XLR outs with remote. I would love to get the Topping e30 but it has one output, and I don’t like the idea of splitters or a 4th box on my table. Any suggestions or tips? I feel like this must be common situation for many others shrug.
You can drive multiple amps from a single output on a DAC, it won’t impact anything, unless you have a DAC with no output buffer, I only know of 1, or connect more than a couple of amps.
Just mute or turn the volume down on the amp your not using.
Some DAC’s have multiple outputs that are all live, so you don’t need a splitter.
Switchable outputs are less common.
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I feel/think this situation happens when people just buy more things and not pre-plan or see the big picture. What is needed to make all go, simple and effective way. Don’t know, have not been there.
Might also happen if current situation suddenly changes otherwize but ^^ still.
Multiple solution.
One to rule em all, maybe a preamp(dac) with selectable output and what of future upgrade room? Most DAC’s only have so few outputs / Preamps have more.
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I think most people just daisy chain equipment and turn on/off individual stuff when they want to use it. Like most amps have passthroughs or preouts. You might want a balanced dac that lets you switch between outputs with a remote. Like topping d70 etc. Idk, they might output to balanced and unbalanced simultaneously, you’d have to check reviews.
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