Headphone Amp Line-Out Question + USB DAC

[sawdin]

I have a Perreaux Silhoutte SXH1 heaphone amp that has one set of RCA inputs (L/R) and one set of RCA line outs (L/R). If I feed the line-in on the amp from the RCA line-out of a Musicstreamer USB DAC, will the line-outs on the amp send out an unamplified signal? If that is the case, would the Perreaux amp need to be turned on? The reason I'm asking is that sometimes I may want to use my powered speakers instead of my headphones and I was concerned that connecting my powered speakers to an amp feed would cause problems. If I can use the Perreaux to passively send the signal to my speakers, I won't have to upgrade my soundcard to something like an M-Audio Audiophile 192 or use 'female to 2 males' RCA adapters on both channels of the outs from the musicstreamer DAC. I'm not sure how much degradation I would get using the adapters (and I might not be able to hear it given my ears and equipment), but my preference is to stay away from adapters.

 

Thanks!

PS...I have not yet purchased the USB DAC, thus I cannot experiment w/ various connection options.

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* Dell XPS 8100 (i7 860 (2.8GHz), 8 GB ram, running Windows 7 x64), Realtek HD Audio SC w/ Tru Studio PC software (Creative/THX), Swann D1080 Mk II speakers

* Senn HD 650, Perreaux Sihoutte SXH1 amp

* Denon AVR 3806, Denon DVD 1920, Revel Concerta F12 speakers

* Monster HTS 3500 Mk II and various cables.

 

 

[Mr.C]

Do you powered speakers have a preamp? The outputs on most headphone amps is equivalent to a preamplifier ie. won't harm anything.

 

You could always buy a $5 1/8" to rca cable to experiment with to make sure.