HI all,
A simple question to all who know the answer. I've been searching the internet for days, though - with no luck.......
Situation: I have a simple desktop system that uses the Icepower unit in the title, and I'd like to get a better dac to use with them, and the laptop files are stored on.
It's often mentioned that without alteration, Icepower amps want a source with low output impedance....but I can nowhere find this particular "low" quantified numerically. Does it mean sticking to sources with extremely low output impedance - like you'll find on a lot of dac/headphone amps (i.e. from less than 1 ohm to 2 or 3) ....or does it just mean avoiding things like tube dacs?
Would (e.g.) an SMSL Sanskrit 10th MKII, which I read somewhere has an output impedance of 10 ohms, effect the performance of the amp? Is there a roughly defined point at which source impedance becomes an issue/too high....or are we just looking at an across-the-board less-is-better situation?
Any clarification gratefully received......
A simple question to all who know the answer. I've been searching the internet for days, though - with no luck.......
Situation: I have a simple desktop system that uses the Icepower unit in the title, and I'd like to get a better dac to use with them, and the laptop files are stored on.
It's often mentioned that without alteration, Icepower amps want a source with low output impedance....but I can nowhere find this particular "low" quantified numerically. Does it mean sticking to sources with extremely low output impedance - like you'll find on a lot of dac/headphone amps (i.e. from less than 1 ohm to 2 or 3) ....or does it just mean avoiding things like tube dacs?
Would (e.g.) an SMSL Sanskrit 10th MKII, which I read somewhere has an output impedance of 10 ohms, effect the performance of the amp? Is there a roughly defined point at which source impedance becomes an issue/too high....or are we just looking at an across-the-board less-is-better situation?
Any clarification gratefully received......
If I recall correctly 50ASX2 has a lowest (frequency dependant) input impedance of 8 kOhm which should not be an issue for solid state stuff. However local volume control with a buffer is recommended as a “fuse”. Software volume control is nice but when something goes wrong it will cost you 2 loudspeakers.
There was a pcb design for such an addon on a German forum but I forgot which one. So maybe it is time for some heavy googling 😉
There was a pcb design for such an addon on a German forum but I forgot which one. So maybe it is time for some heavy googling 😉
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"Low impedance" here is normal solid-state range of 50-200 ohms. IIRC, the rule of thumb is x10-20 lower than the load, so with 8kOhm as the load up to around 600R (+/-) is fine.
The "too high" impedance would normally be tube-based line stages with Zout over 1kOhm and of course some designs that have the volume control on the output. Here you'd need to be careful, but any normal solid-state design should not have any problems.
Your example 10R output impedance is only really a (potential) problem when driving headphones, because here staying within the x10-20 rule gets difficult 🙂
The "too high" impedance would normally be tube-based line stages with Zout over 1kOhm and of course some designs that have the volume control on the output. Here you'd need to be careful, but any normal solid-state design should not have any problems.
Your example 10R output impedance is only really a (potential) problem when driving headphones, because here staying within the x10-20 rule gets difficult 🙂