Tube and digital?

[windmiller]

I am really interested in putting together a turntable and a phono tube amp. My current setup is

Rotel 1057 (to be replaced with Outlaw Audio's upcoming offering)
B&W 703 fronts
B&W HTM2 center

So what I am trying to figure out is if its possible to setup a turntable with a phono tube amp and send the signal to the same speakers that are being used by my Rotel 1057? Basically I want my cake and eat it too

[Robert McLean]

Connect the turntable to a PHONO preamp, ie it must have phono equalization and suitable gain, and connect that to an analogue input on the Rotel, push the appropriate input select buttons on the Rotel's front panel and away you go.

Tube based or solid state wont make a difference to the connections required.

The rest of my answer is probably irrelevant, but just in case you dont have an analogue input, or if what you have is a tube integrated amp with a phono input :

According to the Rotel website the 1057 has 7 analogue inputs, I would expect that whatever it is you are getting from Outlaw Audio will also have some analogue inputs available. If not, then you would have to digitize the output of the phono preamp. That sounds like a pain to me personally, so then what I would do is take your question more literally, and just use your current speakers.

Ie feed the phono preamp to another power amp, tube based if you choose, and switch your speakers between the Rotel and the other power amp as you please. I am cheap, so I have 3 amps connected to a box of banana jacks, and 4 sets of speakers connected to banana plugs, and I can hook up whatever combination of amps and speakers I feel like listening to. It is not visually attractive, depending on your taste in these matters you may to prefer to invest in a proper speaker selector switch. I know you are selecting amps, but just hook it up "backwards"

[windmiller]

I am so glad to hear that this is possible! I have confirmed that the upcoming Outlaw Pre\opro will have analogue inputs so it sounds like I should be ok. I am very excited about getting into tubes.

Thanks so much for a great explanation, this was my first post here and I love this place already. I've been a member of AVS Forums for years but in the last year or two it has gotten much to crowded.

[Eli Duttman]

WM,

As this is a DIY "board", I suggest you look into the Hagerman Cornet2. Jim's PCB places the project within a neophyte's grasp.

Do you know the I/P impedance of the Rotel and Outlaw units? If it's at least 50 KOhms, the Bottlehead Seduction is another DIY possibility.