Hello all, I am planning on a Dual Mono build of the icepower 125asx modules, my source is rca unbalanced. I was wndering if I could use the ART DTI transformer hum eliminator and converter instead of adding two of those RTX modules from ghent or any of the others on ebay etc. Will this work converting unbalanced to balanced?
https://www.amazon.com/ART-DTI-Tran...-channel+hum+eliminator&qid=1681288879&sr=8-4
https://www.amazon.com/ART-DTI-Tran...-channel+hum+eliminator&qid=1681288879&sr=8-4
Did a brief look for diy and found this
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...used-an-active-rca-xlr-level-converter.12546/
Not sure if that is better or worse
Curious though what you figure out
Check this also
https://sound-au.com/articles/balanced-2.htm#s1
Rod Elliott is a very straight forward designer.
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...used-an-active-rca-xlr-level-converter.12546/
Not sure if that is better or worse
Curious though what you figure out
Check this also
https://sound-au.com/articles/balanced-2.htm#s1
Rod Elliott is a very straight forward designer.
Last edited:
So from what I am reading it will work to convert unbalanced to balanced. So Im hoping to use this from Dac Preamp which is RCA and have it output Balanced to feed the BTL amps ICEpower 125asx2se. Thats basically what those GHENT Audio RTX modules do correct? You need one per Amp modules and theyre 40 something each, I already have this ART DTI on hand. My questin is though is this signal that is coming out the XLR strong enough to properly drive these amps? Or will it just be 2.1 volts which is what my preamp output voltage is.
There are two different approaches to single-ended-to-differential conversion: passive circuitry, involving transformers, or active circuitry, usually involving op-amps. The ART DTI is an example of the former, the Ghent RTX module is an example of the latter.
In normal circumstances you could use either of these products, with a few pros and cons regarding each. But the ICEpower ASX series is a somewhat special case, because these amp modules have quite a low input impedance, around 8k or so. I don't fully understand it, but audio transformers work best when their secondary windings see a higher impedance at the amplifier input. The experts on this forum can explain it better.
Bottom line; a transformer-based converter is sub-optimal to use with an ICEpower 125ASX2. You can go ahead and connect it if you wish - there's no danger in doing so - but you won't get best audio performance from this combination.
Yes, for each of your 125ASX2 monoblocks you should use one Ghent RTX module ...
... but here's an another option - put that money you are about to spend on the RTX modules towards a fully balanced DAC - something like the Topping E50, or SMSL DO100. Now you don't need to convert to unbalanced!
In normal circumstances you could use either of these products, with a few pros and cons regarding each. But the ICEpower ASX series is a somewhat special case, because these amp modules have quite a low input impedance, around 8k or so. I don't fully understand it, but audio transformers work best when their secondary windings see a higher impedance at the amplifier input. The experts on this forum can explain it better.
Bottom line; a transformer-based converter is sub-optimal to use with an ICEpower 125ASX2. You can go ahead and connect it if you wish - there's no danger in doing so - but you won't get best audio performance from this combination.
Yes, for each of your 125ASX2 monoblocks you should use one Ghent RTX module ...
... but here's an another option - put that money you are about to spend on the RTX modules towards a fully balanced DAC - something like the Topping E50, or SMSL DO100. Now you don't need to convert to unbalanced!