Switching Between Headphone Amps

[Jeff_N]

Hi,

 

I have a Vincent KHV-1 hybrid headphone amp fed by a Yggdrasil DAC. I recently bought a kinda crappy Massdrop Koss ESP/95X electrostatic pair of headphones with associated energizer, because I wanted to see what ES headphones sounded like.

 

The Yggdrasil has two sets of unbalanced RCA outputs, but one set goes to my regular speakers amp. The other set goes to the Vincent, so when I want to listen to the Koss headphones I swap around the RCA cables. None of my amps have balanced inputs, so I can't use the Yggdrasil's balanced outputs.

 

Is something like this https://www.amazon.com/EZ-ADA4-Stereo-Audio-Distribution-Amplifier/dp/B002T5VNIW between the DAC and the two headphone amps the best solution to switch back and forth between the two? Or should I stop whining and continue swapping the cables? Thanks for looking.

 

Jeff

[Jeff_N]

Thanks to all you guys for your help. I'm gonna give the little Nobsound switch box a try. For sixty bucks, if it degrades the sound, I'll just throw it in my gadget drawer and go back to swapping the cables.

[Jeff_N]

Here's the conclusion. I stupidly got the Nobsound switch box without noticing it has a pair of balanced and a pair of unbalanced inputs, and a pair of balanced and a pair of unbalanced outputs. Both of my headphone amps have only unbalanced inputs, so I can't use the box. 

 

Anyway over time breaking in and listening to the Koss ES headphones, I've decided they sound like crap compared to my Sennheiser HD600 and HiFiMan HE400I, so I'll probably give the Kosses away or throw them in a drawer with the switch box.

[Jeff_N]

1 hour ago, audiobomber said:

I don't understand the problem. Your DAC has two pairs of balanced and one pair of unbalanced outputs.

- RCA outs to your speaker amp

- RCA outs to your best headphone amp

- XLR out to the Nobsound, then RCA from the Nobsound to the second headphone amp.

Okay so I'm even dumber than I thought. For some reason I got it into my head that this was a switch box, so I needed to be able to switch back and forth using it. I've now hooked it up as you suggested and it works fine. Thanks audiobomber and please don't tell anyone about this.

[Jeff_N]

You're right Bluesman, but the Koss got a bunch of glowing reviews, so I thought I'd give them a shot. I guess I shouldn't have put so much stock in the reviews. 

 

I was tempted by the Black Friday deal on the Jade II, but after my experience with the Koss I couldn't pull the trigger.

 

I'm going to CanJam NYC in February, so I'll try to listen to some ES phones then.

[Jeff_N]

On 12/8/2019 at 1:37 PM, audiobomber said:

No problem, my lips are sealed. 😉

I'm still interested in hearing your opinion of the sound, or lack thereof, with the passive preamp ahead of your headphone amp. 

My admittedly non-golden ears detect no diminution in sound quality with the little switch box in the middle.