Smsl SP200 THX AAA 888

Seeing as you find them identical, are you still keeping the 888?

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Yes. I took my Atom to work.

If I had the Aeolus coming Iā€™d be looking at tubes probably.

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dB is base 10 logarythmic, so 90 (power ratio 1^10 * 9) to 127 (power ratio 1^10 * 12.7) while a difference of 10^3, it is very low noise, to very very low noise.
I could tell you the difference with an oscilloscope when I put a 1000x amplification on the balanced side, and that is about it.

Is there such a thing as a 2-male RCA to 4-male RCA splitter? I want to connect my SU-8 to this amp and to my speaker amp.

Also, whatā€™s the cheapest option for an XLR adapter to plug in unbalanced headphones into the balanced output?

Yeah, you can get a splitter like this
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B019ZQS4N4/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_NBQZDb7ZW5TRE

Also donā€™t plug unbalanced into a balanced output. You are just asking for trouble (sometimes). Balanced to unbalanced is fine but you could cause issues if you try and connect unbalanced headphones to a balanced output with an adapter

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Not sure the splitter would work, the SU-8 only has 1 dual RCA out. Iā€™d need 2-male RCA to 4-male RCA if I want to connect to two amps
image

If Iā€™m understanding you correctly, you would get those splitters and each splitter would plug into the left and right, and the two splitters would provide 2 left and 2 right, making for 2 amps to be able to connect. One of the splitters takes a single rca and splits it into 2. Therefore with both splitters on left and right you would end up with 4 rca outs total

Itā€™s quite possible Iā€™m just not understanding you properly, but as you can see from the photo, itā€™s only one (L+R) output on the SU-8. If I plug two splitters into it, itā€™s only half the signal, right?
I want to connect this:
image

into this RCA:

and this line in:

Is there a reason you donā€™t want to do XLR balanced from the SU-8 to the SP-200? You could do balanced XLR from SU-8 to SP200 and unbalanced RCA from SU-8 to your speaker amp.

That is the plan, but my XLR cable wonā€™t be here for another 2 weeks at least + I donā€™t have any balanced headphones, and apparently an XLR to 3.5 adapter is not a good thing

Okay, just fyi, you donā€™t need balanced headphones. You can use the balanced input on the SP200 and still use the unbalanced 1/4" output on the front.

And yeah, you donā€™t want to try plugging in unbalanced headphones to balanced source, but you donā€™t need to use it in this case. Just use the 1/4 output. Same power output. Any differences are inaudible from my testing.

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Great, then! Saves me the unnecessary purchase :smiley:

Lol I had assumed you had already been using the xlr outs, well yeah then you donā€™t need the splitter

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Wish I could demo these THX ampā€™s somewhereā€¦ Pretty happy with the EL AMP and my current gear is mid-fi (my definition of it at least) so not sure if I should wait till I have my next round of upgrades.

I mean honestly the el amp is great and itā€™s not something I would personally trade for a sp200 (perhaps a 887 tho for the better power)

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I donā€™t even push the el amp power wise yet and donā€™t use balanced. All this really is is the curiosity over THX.

Yea, if you donā€™t have any balanced gear and donā€™t feel that you want more power, I donā€™t think the sp200 is going to yield that significant of a difference. Perhaps put some money towards the lcd 1 and reevaluate your hatred towards Audeze lol

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IMO, main benefit to one of the THX amps is just having TONS and TONS of power, likely more than youā€™ll ever needā€¦ There are definitely cheaper options that are audibly just as good sound wise, just with less head room in terms of power.

:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:

I realize @olinkoā€™s issue is resolved, but in case another reader comes along and is confused by the term ā€œsplitterā€ Iā€™ll leave a comment.

In audio, the term ā€œsplitterā€ can be a bit misleading. The word ā€˜splitā€™ can reasonably understood to mean something like ā€˜divide and separateā€™, implying that a portion of the signal goes down one path and a different portion goes down the other path. But, since weā€™re dealing with electrical circuits, what these ā€œsplittersā€ do is create a parallel electrical circuit. The key usefulness of parallel electrical paths here is that both paths get an equal voltage drop across them, meaning that both paths of the ā€œsplitterā€ get identical signal from the DAC (or whatever signal is being split). So as @M0N said earlier, in this context a ā€œsplitterā€ would take 1 ā€˜Lā€™ signal and turn it into 2 identical ā€˜Lā€™ signals. A word of caution to any reader new to audio: itā€™s ok to use ā€œsplittersā€ to duplicate a line-level signal - there should be no issues here (except maybe ground loops if you do it too much) - but DO NOT try this with speaker wires between amplifier and speakers. Parallel signal paths actually reduce the total impedance of a circuit and that can cause your amplifer to freak out, and possibly do permanent damage.

I hope this helps future readersā€¦

PS: advanced users should be fine wiring two 8 ohm speakers in parallel for an amp that is rated to handle 4 ohm loads. Putting 2 4-ohm speakers in parallel for a 2 ohm load will likely cause problems for the vast majority of amplifiers.

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