Hello,
First post! I have a 2.1 setup for my relatively small living room comprised of two BIC PL-89 and a Monoprice 15" THX. Up until recently I have been using a TX-NR676 which has decided to Onkyo itself and seppuku the HDMI board. My general media consumption is an nVidia shield (HDMI) and a turntable (RCA). With my minimal amount of devices and relatively “powerful” speakers, I was looking into just running a dedicated amp to get above the normal receiver output power limit of 100W or so for an 8 ohm speaker. The biggest issue I have right now is figuring out how to manage my sources into the amp.
Today I got a Behringer KM750. Was this a good idea? It seems like people mostly use this for subwoofers. I set it up today and it seems absolutely miles above the previous setup, however I’m now chasing an audio hum.
When using RCA to XLR cables from my TV it’s the worst, however switching to purely RCA cables it gets better. I’m concerned since I also have a Behringer CX2310 in the mail too, which only takes XLR. Would the addition of the crossover help with the hum? Should I look into some kind of Optical to XLR device? Should I get one of those “HDMI Audio Stripper” things? I’m confused and scared, please help.
I think this is the first time I’ve seen any one talk about a dedicated power amp as opposed to an integrated amp. I personally use a home theater receiver. Why did you buy the Behringer CX2310 crossover? It looks like your subwoofer has built in cross over adjustment.
What’s your budget? I would definitely avoid using the analog outputs of any TV. Does your TV have an optical output?
One option is to get a DAC/Amp combo that includes a preamp—and hook that to your new amp. I’m pretty sure if you went that route, that would fix the hum issue. Otherwise, there could be some issue with amp itself. You probably can’t control volume with your TV remote if you went this route however.
Or a simple volume control. The jbl nano patch or makie big knob passive are a couple of examples. Source in and it controls the volume and passes it onto the power amp. Fairly inexpensive. I use a big knob passive to control volume and feed into 2 parasound 2125v2 in bridge mono. The big knob gets its signal from my su8 v2 (which can also control the volume if I wanted to do that).
There are also dedicated powered preamps that offer other features as well
For one of my bigger setups, I use a ps audio stellar gain cell preamp as a source and control the volume, and it passes it on to the parasound halo A 21+.
I picked up the CX2310 for two reasons, controlling the range going to the KM750 to prevent full-range from hitting the tower speakers (After a day of testing it seems this was unwarranted), and second to provide some level of control for the subwoofer input without having to fiddle with the backside of the sub.
At the moment my budget is just shooting for something as cheap as possible that does what I’m looking for (2.1 amplification with a decent power rating for the 2). I did pick up a FiiO D3 that comes in tomorrow with the crossover, I expect to spend most of tomorrow evening with a nice glass of whiskey troubleshooting all these connections.
I keep hearing about preamps, but they just seem to blow the budget out of the water. That might ultimately be the route I’ll need to take, but for now it’s last resort.
I’m going to give this crossover a shot with this DAC to see if that gets me 90% of the way there.
Thanks for all the help with this, I guess I better keep on shopping for preamps.
No offense, but I find your current setup somewhat hilarious.
$500 Tower speaker Set.
$1,300?!?! Subwoofer
$160 Subwoofer Adjuster
$200 Power amp
$20 DAC
No preamp.
You might not need the preamp (or passive volume control like M0N suggested) for the Shield, but you will need it for the turntable if it doesn’t have volume control. If you keep what you have, you shouldn’t have spend much more to get some kind of volume control.
I know I have a crazy setup, I was a bass-chaser for a while which is how I ended up with this sub, however once I got it I realized that there were… deficiencies in the rest of my setup. I’m just trying to reel everything into perspective. Also I like being able to upgrade section by section of my setup instead of relying on one all-in-one type device hoping it’ll work. My router consists of a firewall, switch, and wireless AP to give you an idea of how crazy I am.
I’m actually considering what it would take to just make my own preamp since I have some-what of an electrical know-how. But let’s be honest I barely use the turntable in my living room, I typically use my office turntable.
If you decide to do a DIY solution, I’d like to see what you come up with. This website is great, though it’s focused on headphones https://diyaudioheaven.wordpress.com/
Also I’m a hardcore tech enthusiast, and it never once occurred to me to get dedicated hardware for a Firewall and wireless connectivity. Maybe you are crazy LOL.
The Crossover however will probably be banished to the shadow realm soon. The big issue I have is that in order to feed the sub it pulls from the other channels (I guess I don’t understand crossovers?) and the subwoofer volume seems hella low even with everything maxed out.
I’ll have to find a better solution to control speaker/sub balance.
But overall I’m thoroughly pleased with the DAC + KM750 feeding the PL-89s. Just to fix that darn sub…
I looked at the manual for that crossover, and I can’t figure out how you even connected your DAC. It only has a single 3 Pin XLR input. But they do make crossovers with stereo RCA inputs and outputs. This one for example probably would work for you. But you probably want something more high end.
