Greetings, I have the BHK Pre and use it to feed BHK 300s via XLR. I alternately use the Pre to feed a Pass stereo amp via RCA (not at the same time).
Would I be better off using XLR to RCA adapters when using the Pass amp so I can realize the extra gain from the Pre over XLR vs RCA?
It makes be a bit uncomfortably how high I have to go on the volume with the Pass vs BHKs.
Cheers,
Mike
I am unaware of XLR adaptors that will allow you to utilize the extra gain of the balanced ouput. Perhaps they exist. … but most will just halve the balanced output, effectively being RCA to RCA in that regard.
There are 1:1 transformers made by Jensen and others that will allow you to use XLR to RCA and retain the gain, and also a nice device that I have two of: the Decware ZBIT.
No.
Why does the volume number on the preamp matter?
Only that I have to remember to turn it back down when switching amps. I actually have to turn down the DAC and the Pre.
The only way to properly take a single ended termination to a differential requires more than a balun, and seeing that the issue is more than just inserting a potentiometer. It has to do with dealing with the symmetric signals. Bus gain structure will also suffer.