Okay bear with me if you would. I’m trying to find the best way to merge a hd headphone setup with a vintage “fun” setup. I just got my dream Marantz 2245 to replace another vintage receiver. I currently have a turntable and hdcd player hooked up to the receiver (phono, aux). I also have an iPad mini playing Amazon music HD hooked to a drop x grace via camera connector which is connected to a liquid spark amp for “critical listening”. What I’d like to do is be able to listen to all sources on both outputs; the receiver and the amp. The easy answer is to run the tape out of the receiver to the spark, and put the grace on the tape in since I need the usb connection to retain the HD from the iPad. That’s a long-winded setup to the actual question…will passing through the Marantz kill the HD signal from either the hdcd or the grace on the way to the liquid spark. I know I can buy my way out of this, but I’d like to use what I have if the consensus is that the HD signal will pass cleanly through the Marantz. Thoughts?
Nice 
If it’s working properly, this should be just fine. If you are concerned you can just get some cheap rca splitters and be just fine that way too.
Thanks for the quick response. Yeah, those damn blue lights are like a siren’s song 
I’m about to dip my toe into this same thing this weekend. I’m getting my old Marantz back from the shop myself, and plan to finally hook it up in its permanent location this weekend. For now, I plan to keep my vintage setup separate from my modern gear. I will have the Marantz 2325, Wharfedale speakers and (modern) turntable set up and I will probably use my Airist R2R with that gear. Aside from the DAC, the only modern gear I plan to use in that setup are my 6se
Perhaps pick up a marantz project D1 for the dac lol? Pretty classic vintage dac (but not the right era lol)
If I ever see one for a good price I’d grab one. I don’t plan on really going too much deeper down the vintage hole, but if I ever see something really great for a good price I won’t pass it up
For me it really is coming down to a little bit physical space, but more so the headphones. I’m a big “warm” guy, and there’s something about the sound of a vintage receiver, headphone jack included (that $40 Sanyo JCX was a shocker) that really works for me. Obviously the Marantz hits all the right spots. Not clinical listening for sure, but I decided it would be nice to listen to all things on both new and old. Congrats on the 2325…that thing is a beast. If you’re looking for/need a repro wood case, I’ve got a name.
Got a spare $4k? 
I’ve already spent more on dacs lol. It was pretty awesome when I heard it but it’s not the type of sound I would want to listen to all the time (the d1)
Also you might be able to find a good deal on one if it pops up, I’ve seen them go in good condition for 2k but that was not super recent
I’m also a really big fan of the sound from the headphone out on vintage amps. It gives almost a tube-like presentation
So I’m finally back to report. The good news is the Marantz is beautiful and sounds equally good. It does not, however like the Spark hooked up to any outputs (bad loopback). So plan B was the RCA splitters, but when split between the Marantz and the Spark, I get perfectly good audio on the Marantz and maybe 20% volume on the Spark. If I unplug the cables to the Marantz, all is well, but as soon as I plug them in (Marantz powered on or not) the volume crashes. I ordered some newer, maybe better splitters hoping that it’s an impedance thing, but anyone else have any wild guesses?
If you continue to have this issue, you would have to get an active powered splitter or get a switcher box to make things work
So here’s the part of the story where I’m a colossal moron. The Grace has RCA and 3.5 output. I assumed one would cancel out the other…wrong, dead wrong. RCA to Spark, 3.5 to RCA cable to Marantz, full power at both ends simultaneously. Anyone have some humble pie?
Lol I completely forgot about the multiple outputs of the grace dacs, well problem solved I guess
if you’re talking steampunk, you could get the Bluetooth Lynx Skull Cybernetic Speaker: