Headphone DAC/Amp paired with powered speakers?

Speakers & Subwoofers
1

I’m scratching my head trying to figure out if I’m potentially causing damage to my powered bookshelf speakers (Monolith MM-3) by using my JDS Labs C5D Headphone DAC/Amp as the go between with my PC.

The C5D is rated at max 2.0 VRMS. I suspect it reaches that voltage when using the high gain mode (which I don’t use). The reason I’m attempting this in the first place is because of typical bad on board DAC in PC with noise introduced with the line out. I don’t have a stand alone DAC on hand at the moment and want to see if I can save the money.

So the setup looks like USB from PC -> DAC/amp -> 3.5mm (amped) Headphone out -> Powered Speakers. The DAC/Amp doesn’t have an unpowered line out port, just a 3.5mm line in for portable use.

I’ve always read not to amp to another amp but in this case the headphone amp would be weak enough to be safe maybe?

2

https://www.sweetwater.com/insync/headphone-outputs-used-line-outputs-for-line-level-gear/

TL;DR All good, nothing in danger.

That is true in a way, depends on what amp you use though.
Having one Op-Amp feed into another Op-Amp is very common (every mixing desk, audio interface or active DI-Box does this either internally or to gear down the signal chain).
The output of a speaker amp on the other hand (screw terminals or SpeakerTwist) should not be dumped into a line level input. You would not strap a car engine to a bicylcle either.

1 Like
3

well that’s a relief, thanks!