No I have broke stuff . Some equipment doesn't have protection. Go with the trans. If your a tube guy you need the isolation anyway. Especially the earth. And the hi frequency hash. Keep the ss diode filth out of the good stuff. I isolate every ss source with trans. It always sounds better. Or just totally disregard anything I have to say and have fun. Thats what its all about. You could use a healing crystal instead.
Old-fashioned circuits (whether valve or transistor) worked at fairly high impedances so simply shorting two channels to get mono does no harm. Modern stuff uses opamps (or their equivalent buried inside a larger chip) so once negative feedback is applied they have a very low output impedance. Shorting two opamp outputs together will mean that they will each try very hard to drive the now commoned point to the voltage that their own input signal and feedback loop tells them it should be. Fortunately the channel difference signal will often be small, but it will not always be. In effect each opamp sees a short circuit. In trying to drive this the opamp may protect itself from harm, but the current limiting circuits are quite likely to add significant distortion. At the very least the opamp is trying hard to do something it can't do and this is bound to affect the music.
Most circuits include a resistor to stop this happening, which is why some people don't believe there is a problem. Some cheap circuits might not. It is easy to add your own resistors.
I am astonished that such a simple audio/electronics problem has excited so much comment, some of it misguided or ignorant. What chance have we got of solving difficult problems?
Most circuits include a resistor to stop this happening, which is why some people don't believe there is a problem. Some cheap circuits might not. It is easy to add your own resistors.
I am astonished that such a simple audio/electronics problem has excited so much comment, some of it misguided or ignorant. What chance have we got of solving difficult problems?
"Old-fashioned circuits (whether valve or transistor) worked at fairly high impedances so simply shorting two channels to get mono does no harm"
True~ and also, the mono switches may look like they're just shorting L to R but if you look back up the line usually there is a series resistor somewhere in the circuit between the source and the switch. Or the output impedance of the source was high enough that it did essentially the same thing, as stated above..
My rule of thumb has always been to use a summing network. But there are differing opinions out there, that's what 'do it yourself' is all about.
True~ and also, the mono switches may look like they're just shorting L to R but if you look back up the line usually there is a series resistor somewhere in the circuit between the source and the switch. Or the output impedance of the source was high enough that it did essentially the same thing, as stated above..
My rule of thumb has always been to use a summing network. But there are differing opinions out there, that's what 'do it yourself' is all about.
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