2. tech-talk
  3. 1050265782

Audio Aero Mark II--using balanced and unbalanced

I have my new Mark II and I do love it. It is a litle curious feeling as I get past the lesser brands that come with the 20+page instruction books that talk about all of the neat settings. Being (perhaps?) typically French, the Audio Aero's instruction tells us: 'the way to do it, and that's that...enjoy(!). There are no alternative suggestions. Anyway, I have the McIntosh 2-channel 2102 tube amp(my God, it sounds good!) and I have a pair of speakers that each has it's own amp in another room. I will be buying a control center, but for now I want to run both from the Audio Aero Cd player. My choice is to run them with a pair of RCA 'Y' adapters out of the unbalanced or to use both the unbalanced and balanced outputs at the same time. I saw in one thread where MAJAMES(bless you, your responses are always great!) seems to be doing this. Has anyone else tried it?
unclejeff
tireguy
1,964 posts
 
Mejames- how is that possible? XLR is typically 6dB higher at lower volumes, and that difference becomes less as the volume is increased. I have not tried it with my capitole II(no reason too) but I am curiuos- I would test it right now but my amp does not have RCA inputs :(
mejames
986 posts
 
not exactly sure why but that's what I'm told its either not truly balanced or they adjusted the level in the balanced circuit so they are equal to the RCA sound level. Haven't measured with a meter but they sound the same volume output to me.
tireguy
1,964 posts
 
Mejames- Another possibility is if the amp you are running into isn't truly balanced you will not get the same gain from the XLR side of things. This is interesting I wish I had some way of testing it.
acuujim
207 posts
 
I run the balanced output of my AA direct to my amps and I run the single ended direct to my powered subwoofer
It works fabulously
I think the same would be true of what you are trying to do
Of course the Talon Roc sub I use has volume control
You may need to put a passive volume control before your powered speakers
But the AA hadles itself quite well
mejames
986 posts
 
balanced amplifiers used were Wolcott presence mono blocks Rowland model 1 and VTL 750 REFERENCE mono blocks.
More to discover