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#62261 - 10/15/06 09:28 PM Balanced to RCA - OK or not OK?
ceddc Offline
Deputy Gunslinger

Registered: 06/08/05
Posts: 6
Loc: Central Valley Calif.
I've had my 990 for the past few months. Excellent. I just hooked up my new 7125 on a temporary basis until I get some properly sized interconnects. I have a few XLR to RCA, high quality interconnects (have to buy a couple more),which would be perfect to tidy up the rat nest behind my rack. Are there any drawbacks to doing this? I kind of think it should be OK, but I am far from an expert. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

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#62262 - 10/15/06 10:19 PM Re: Balanced to RCA - OK or not OK?
tweeterman Offline
Gunslinger

Registered: 10/09/06
Posts: 22
Loc: Winnipeg, CANADA
It's a bad practise to connect a balanced output to an unbalanced input because depending on the way the connectors are wired you may short out one of the two active outputs to ground. RCA to RCA connectors are best to use with the 7125. Going from unbalanced out to balanced input is safer as nothing will be shorted to ground in the wiring. Hope this helps.

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#62263 - 10/16/06 03:09 PM Re: Balanced to RCA - OK or not OK?
ceddc Offline
Deputy Gunslinger

Registered: 06/08/05
Posts: 6
Loc: Central Valley Calif.
Thank you very much for the help/advice. I'll do the RCA to RCA routine. So far, the amp is great. It runs my B&W N804's/ HTM 1, & others like a champ. Question - Does an amp like this require a "break-in" period of time? Seems like it sounded a little smoother after about an hour total time. Possibly just my imagination. Anyway, I'm going to leave it on continuosly for 2-3 days, on principle. Again, thanks for the help.

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#62264 - 10/16/06 03:38 PM Re: Balanced to RCA - OK or not OK?
Viejo Loco Offline
Deputy Gunslinger

Registered: 10/13/06
Posts: 11
Loc: Rio Rancho
I like to break in all electrical equip for a couple of days. It took my ATI a week to fully break in.
_________________________
Outlaw 990, ATI-3007, Sony BDP-S1, Integra DPS-8.3, Straight Wire / Analysis Plus Pwr Cables / Interconnects, 2 RGPC 400 Pro's, Furman IT Ref 20, Sony KDSR60XBR2 HDTV, Revel Performa (LCR+S's), Velodyne DD12 Subwoofer and controlled via MX800.

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#62265 - 10/16/06 04:04 PM Re: Balanced to RCA - OK or not OK?
KMDonlon Offline
Gunslinger

Registered: 09/17/06
Posts: 41
Loc: Raleigh, NC
Amps always sound better after the temp stabilizes, I always warm up my gear before listening. An hour or so usually is fine smile
_________________________
Kevin

When it sounds right, it's magic!

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#62266 - 10/16/06 11:24 PM Re: Balanced to RCA - OK or not OK?
tweeterman Offline
Gunslinger

Registered: 10/09/06
Posts: 22
Loc: Winnipeg, CANADA
So do you feel you have enough power to satisfy your needs? Did you consider the 200 W/ch amps before you ordered the 7125. I'm curious because I may order some Outlaw equipment in the future and am undecided on which amp rating I want. I'm sure 125 W/ ch is plenty, but you can't go wrong with more headroom the 200 w/ ch offers. The 7125 is a value that is hard to ignore too.
laugh
Cheers

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#62267 - 10/17/06 01:31 AM Re: Balanced to RCA - OK or not OK?
psyprof1 Offline
Desperado

Registered: 09/10/05
Posts: 443
Loc: Santa Barbara, CA
Remember the relation between power and sound level is logarithmic, not arithmetic. So increasing from 125 to 200 watts represents a sound level capability increase of just over 2 decibels - which is a bit less than the smallest loudness increase that can be easily noticed in normal environments. More to the point, though harder to find out, is how clean an amp is at the bottom of its power output range, not the top. I've often heard that the first watt is the most important - this is obviously true for high-sensitivity speakers like Lowthers (1 watt in = 95+ db out), but it doesn't stop being true for more typical speakers. The most important spec here may be odd-order harmonic distortion, which our ear doesn't like since the false harmonics aren't octave multiples of the original note. Less odd-order harmonic distortion is probably the reason tube amplifiers had a reputation for more "euphonious" sound than transistor amps, at least until the latter got very good. "More euphonious" doesn't necessarily mean higher in absolute accuracy, just that the reproduction errors are less unpleasant-sounding.
So the point of all this is, how do the various Outlaw amps, or any others someone's interested in, do in terms of odd-order harmonic distortion below one watt output? Who can answer this??

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