Yang to my Focal Utopia's yin?

I think the BHK preamp HP section is 4 watts if I remember right. 8 or 10 watts would have a lot of headroom for sure. I don’t have any experience with tube amps or rolling tubes so it would be new territory for me.

Good observation the Woo is not balanced internally. I just prefer XLR in and out.

This will help you because you can use a very good short RCA interconnect to hook up the DAC to the HP amp… You have to be very careful with specs. As an engineer I ask a ton of questions because marketing is very, very sneaky. They will elude the AMP is balanced. Woo Audio sells a balanced HP AMP and that HP amp is beautiful and I would want to use it with a flip of the switch instead of re-cabling a lot. That degrades cables… I was shocked BHK Preamp output is not balanced. However, it would be additional circuitry and Paul said he did not see the value.

I believe the PSA DS DAC can be hooked up XLR out and RCA out at the same time. I would check with PSA before buying the RCA cables.

If an amplifier is unbalanced w/ XLR cable input, it is the same thing as RCA, just different connector.

I think just the HP amp is single ended but the preamp itself is balanced?

Yes, BHK Preamp is fully balanced from the XLR cables in the back. The front 1/4in jack is unbalanced (single ended); one of my 1st questions when buying my Utopia HPs.

I didn’t see the value in the Woo amp that’s balanced. There’s actually two that are. The WA33 and the WA234. The WA234 is crazy dual mono statement and maybe one day when I have a lapse in marital judgment. I have more money in tubes than the amp. For me it was the law of diminishing returns.

All good, not judging… trying to help… that Woo Audio HP amp you own is amazing. I have been reading articles while typing and researching. Never looked at that amp… just spit-balling here. I am very interested now and it might be really cool for you to borrow a really nice short set of RCA cables (really nice interconnects) to see if you hear the difference. If the XLR path is SQ better, keep doing what your doing… not a hater… just love to research and learn…

I have good interconnects, Siltech all around. Love these cables. Totally silent background with great music.

OK, not judging, don’t know what you have… are they short is the main concern? 50cm would be nice or 0.5m (23in)? I think you can do a search on PSA DS DAC capable of running RCA & XLR outputs simultaneous. I remember reading a thread on using RCA for sub… it was a while…

The shortest I do is 1 meter. I do this for flexibility. Oh and resale.

OK, as you know me, I would be modeling the distance in VISIO, just my anal self… A meter should be fine to test the theory. I would next make sure you can do this by doing a search on RCA & XLR & DSD & simultaneous… when all else fails, read the manual… :slight_smile:

So the answer is you can use both; however, they will have a difference in level by as much as 6dB; however, the Woo Audio HP amplifier is accommodating with level (low/med/high). Understand, if you do this experiment, there will be an initial difference in volume you will have to adjust for…

Adding post about sub for completeness, thought I remembered…:slight_smile: getting old sucks…
Badbeef and Elk handled that inquiry…
RCA & XLR Output

What a cool setup! Beautiful. Bet it sounds amazing.

After a month comparing the two I am liking the LCD-4 better than the Utopia. I don’t have a particular reason except they always get picked up first and always end up staying on once they are on. I will probably sell the Utopias as they haven’t come off the storage rack for at least two weeks except once or twice to reaffirm the preference. This is on my system with my ears and of course YMMV.

2 Likes