Hi Jim,
Before I submitted my previous post I had looked at a rear panel photo of the Sphinx, as well as at the manual, and subsequent to your response I did some further Googling on the question of driving a power amp from the Sphinx’s variable line-level outputs. I had also noted that the input impedance of the Ayre V-5xe is a very easy to drive 100K. And the Ayre’s sensitivity (the input voltage required to drive it to full power) can be calculated from its power rating and its specified 26 db gain to be approximately 1.7 volts, which seems reasonable.
The bottom line is that it seems to me to be very unlikely that what I proposed would not be a suitable approach. But when you speak to Mark at Rogue you might ask him the following:
1)Are we correct in assuming that the variable line-level outputs on your version of the Sphinx are functional, e.g., that the RCA jacks are not internally connected to nothing?
2)How much gain is there between the phono inputs and those outputs?
3)How much gain is there between the line-level inputs and those outputs?
4)Would running the Sphinx with nothing connected to its speaker-level outputs have any adverse sonic effects on the variable line-level outputs?
5)Would running the Sphinx with nothing connected to its speaker-level outputs pose any threat of damage?
It seems slightly conceivable to me, although unlikely, that question 2 could turn out to be an issue, in terms of having enough gain to be able to drive the external amp to full power when using a phono source. I would be very surprised, though, and it would not speak well of the design, if the answers to any of the other questions conflicted with my suggestion.
Best regards,
-- Al
Before I submitted my previous post I had looked at a rear panel photo of the Sphinx, as well as at the manual, and subsequent to your response I did some further Googling on the question of driving a power amp from the Sphinx’s variable line-level outputs. I had also noted that the input impedance of the Ayre V-5xe is a very easy to drive 100K. And the Ayre’s sensitivity (the input voltage required to drive it to full power) can be calculated from its power rating and its specified 26 db gain to be approximately 1.7 volts, which seems reasonable.
The bottom line is that it seems to me to be very unlikely that what I proposed would not be a suitable approach. But when you speak to Mark at Rogue you might ask him the following:
1)Are we correct in assuming that the variable line-level outputs on your version of the Sphinx are functional, e.g., that the RCA jacks are not internally connected to nothing?
2)How much gain is there between the phono inputs and those outputs?
3)How much gain is there between the line-level inputs and those outputs?
4)Would running the Sphinx with nothing connected to its speaker-level outputs have any adverse sonic effects on the variable line-level outputs?
5)Would running the Sphinx with nothing connected to its speaker-level outputs pose any threat of damage?
It seems slightly conceivable to me, although unlikely, that question 2 could turn out to be an issue, in terms of having enough gain to be able to drive the external amp to full power when using a phono source. I would be very surprised, though, and it would not speak well of the design, if the answers to any of the other questions conflicted with my suggestion.
Best regards,
-- Al