Starting from Scratch

[Karnevil9]

Ive decided to start from Scratch with my ways of playing music.

The turntable will be stripped for parts & sold off, as will the records. Love hate relationship, puts me in more bad moods than good, i can do without the blood pressure tbh..

That aside. Ive just finished Rebuilding one of my old Hi-Fi News 'Headcase' Headphone amplifiers which sounds very nice now.. I have directly connected it up to a Sony 'CDP XB-930E' UK Special Edition CD player, i had one of those fiver DAC bypassing the CDP internal DAC but tbh i cannot hear any difference, so removed it.

I have said this many many time that contrary to Hi-Fi forum belief im not an Hi-Fi expert i just work on experience through the tons of Equipment ive used over the years. Someone comes to me about Synergy im stumped.

Im nearly happy but i find that i have to turn the Headphone amp wick upto 2 o'clock to get a decent headphone output with headphones that are easy enough to drive. Also i could do with a tad more space within the sound!

A Question: Do i need to use a passive pre amp with the CD player before the headphone amp to give me more volume at a lower level..maybe this is the cause of the lack of ultimate clarity?

I maybe connecting up a Quad '405' at a later date because the wife decided she wants some speakers! The headphone amplifier does have a pair of Phono outputs as well as inputs, im wondering what these are actually for! to use as a Passive volume control! Either way it still does not cure my low Headphone output at said volume so could not really use this as such.

[scotty38]

Assuming your CD is outputting at its max level then a passive preamp can either do nothing or attenuate the signal further.

[Karnevil9]

Its a 2V output!

[Ithilstone]

Then passive can only lower that.
Active will almost 100% change sound signature and or degradate it musically

[Wet Cotlake]

Check the compatibility of you headphones and the amp. Sounds like you have a mismatch. Some headphone amps have output adjustment so different phones can be used.