Headphone amplifiers used as preamps.

I’m using some headphone amplifiers as preamps and I’m getting some very good sounding results.

Im using Alpine hi res speakers driven by a Pioneer DM-DX874, its a hi res 4 channel power amplifier driven by a pair of Topping hi res NX1S’s headphone preamps those two fed by a Samsung hi res phone playing hi res music files.

I’m finding though that there is a small range where the volume control on the nx1s goes from soft to loud with just a touch. I can compensate that a little by using the volume control on the smartphone, but this is not what I want. I want to leave that at maximum and use the volume on the NX1s preamps, the volume on the smartphone is handy for controlling both preamps at the same time, but this is not what I want.

Is there any way to expand the volume control’s small range to a larger range?

Tau.Neutrino said:

Headphone amplifiers used as preamps.

I’m using some headphone amplifiers as preamps and I’m getting some very good sounding results.

Im using Alpine hi res speakers driven by a Pioneer DM-DX874, its a hi res 4 channel power amplifier driven by a pair of Topping hi res NX1S’s headphone preamps those two fed by a Samsung hi res phone playing hi res music files.

I’m finding though that there is a small range where the volume control on the nx1s goes from soft to loud with just a touch. I can compensate that a little by using the volume control on the smartphone, but this is not what I want. I want to leave that at maximum and use the volume on the NX1s preamps, the volume on the smartphone is handy for controlling both preamps at the same time, but this is not what I want.

Is there any way to expand the volume control’s small range to a larger range?

The volume control on the NX1s.

Tau.Neutrino said:

Tau.Neutrino said:

Headphone amplifiers used as preamps.

I’m using some headphone amplifiers as preamps and I’m getting some very good sounding results.

Im using Alpine hi res speakers driven by a Pioneer DM-DX874, its a hi res 4 channel power amplifier driven by a pair of Topping hi res NX1S’s headphone preamps those two fed by a Samsung hi res phone playing hi res music files.

I’m finding though that there is a small range where the volume control on the nx1s goes from soft to loud with just a touch. I can compensate that a little by using the volume control on the smartphone, but this is not what I want. I want to leave that at maximum and use the volume on the NX1s preamps, the volume on the smartphone is handy for controlling both preamps at the same time, but this is not what I want.

Is there any way to expand the volume control’s small range to a larger range?

The volume control on the NX1s.

There’s a gain switch on the nx1s which selects between high and low.
He gain switch on the

The gain switch on the NX1s are set to low.

The gain switch on the DM-DX 874 is set to normal.

For some variation in sound I swapped one of the NX1s with a portable tube headphone amplifie,r a Little Bear B5 which uses a pair of miniature 6418 tubes. I can get a much better volume width using that one.

> playing hi res music files using a hi res music program.

This is so far out of my expertise.

Nup. I have no idea what to do.

Tau.Neutrino said:

> playing hi res music files using a hi res music program.

High resolution music files
High resolution music program
High resolution smartphone or external high resolution dac to high resolution headphones or
High resolution pre-amplifier
High resolution power amplifier
High resolution speakers

Tau.Neutrino said:

Tau.Neutrino said:

> playing hi res music files using a hi res music program.

High resolution music files
High resolution music program
High resolution smartphone or external high resolution dac to high resolution headphones or
High resolution pre-amplifier
High resolution power amplifier
High resolution speakers

High resolution headphone amplifier

Michael V said:

This is so far out of my expertise.

Nup. I have no idea what to do.

I will get around to buying a seperate high resolution pre-amplifier.

Tau.Neutrino said:

Michael V said:

This is so far out of my expertise.

Nup. I have no idea what to do.

I will get around to buying a seperate high resolution pre-amplifier.

I could try one of the external dacs, I’ve got a FiiO btr5 and a btr7, they both have high res preamps.

I’ll try that later.

Good luck.

Bubblecar said:

Good luck.

Should be ok.

And a Google search “can headphone amplifiers be used as preamps” says yes. With considerations to gain and output impedance.

I’m looking around for a seperate high res preamp.

I have been using the high res phone with the PHILIPS Fidelio X2HR Headphones, if I want more ompH, then I use the nx1s between the phone and headphones.

The Philips Fidelio X3 looks interesting.

I haven’t heard the x3s yet.

Tau.Neutrino said:

I haven’t heard the x3s yet.

They have a balanced option.

Hmm.

Tau.Neutrino said:

Tau.Neutrino said:

I haven’t heard the x3s yet.

They have a balanced option.

Hmm.

Grovey dovey, the btr7 and btr5 both have balanced outputs next to the unbalanced outputs.

puts an x3 on the shopping list and a btr17.

Some of the differences,

FiiO btr 5 24/96 audio

FiiO btr7 32/384kHz and DSD256 audio

FiiO bt17 32/768kHz audio, DSD512 native, and MQA full decoding

As an aside, I’ve been retrofitting my Home Theatres speakers with their own bluetooth amplifiers from this company. https://www-sinilink-com.translate.goog/?_x_tr_sch=http&_x_tr_sl=zh-CN&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=sc

The amps are cheap. I’ve been using old laptop chargers and a cheap buck boost to get me to the max rated voltage for the amp. The results have been suprisingly good. Even a centre speaker was converted to stereo and the results are a very good bluetooth speaker. A limitation of the amp is that it will only allow a single BT connection at a time. You must disconnect the previous device before pairing with another.

Thought this might help someone here.