XA160.8 single-ended

[jelt2359]

XA100.8 single-ended

Hi all,

Rather new to this forum, but I saw that Nelson replies quite frequently here so I thought I'd ask.

My friend is planning to drive his new XA100.8 from a single-ended preamp. Is it better to convert this signal to balanced with an external converter (eg. trafo-coupled) to feed the XA100.8 with a balanced signal? Or how does the XA100.8 deal with single-ended inputs?

Thanks in advance!

 

[wayne]

It will work just fine single ended in. We ship the amp with a jumper for the XLR input in place and you just use the RCA input.

 

[vdi_nenna]

XA160.8 Can handle both balanced and unbalanced input.
Unless you have long interconnect runs, unbalanced will work fine.
XLR provide some cancellation that might help improve sound...or not.

Read the manual and you probably find that you have to bridge the XLR -pin and ground pin.

https://passlabs.com/amplifier/xa160.8

https://passlabs.com/amplifier/xa160.8#lg=1&slide=1

 

[Zen Mod]

feeding XA with SE signal - step back (lesser amount of SUSY)

inserting xformer prior to XA , for SE to BAL conversion , also step back (involving one more element in signal chain)

which step back is smaller , depends primary of xformer quality

so , try it and decide

 

[jelt2359]

It will work just fine single ended in. We ship the amp with a jumper for the XLR input in place and you just use the RCA input.

Thanks- but is it optimal? Or does the XA100.8 do better with a balanced in signal?

 

[wayne]

It will measure slightly better balanced maybe 50 uV less noise but these levels start to be really system dependent. Sound wise try it with current pre and decide yourself probably very good. Of course we prefer one of our preamps but we play well with others many fine products out there.