Hi uberwaltz,
I understand you incorrectly assumed the pre-outs would allow for connecting headphones but, since the pre-outs don’t function as you thought, connecting headphones using the pre-outs is not an option.
My proposed solution, however, is centered on using your Hegel’s digital output rather than the pre-outs. For this to work you need to have and do the following:
1. You need to use an external dac or dac/amp combo that has a digital input and l+r xlr outputs. These are ’musts’ and not all external dacs and dac/amp combos have a digital input and l+r xlr outputs.
2. You will need a digital coax (S/PDIF) cable (NOT USB - coax is the H300’s only digital output connection), and a set of XLR cables to do this according to the H300’s directions.
3. Connect the digital output on the H300 to the dac’s digital input using a digital coax (S/PDIF) cable.
4. Connect the dac’s l+r xlr outputs to the H300’s l+r xlr inputs using a pair of xlr cables. This completes the DAC-Loop the H300 instructions describe (out of the H300 via its digital output and the converted digital to analog signals back into the H300 via its l+r xlr inputs.)
Quote below is from your H300 manual:
"The DAC-Loop is activated/deactivated by holding the DAC+ button of the RC8 while pressing the IN+ button. A dot after the last digit of the displayed source input will indicate that DAC-Loop is activated. When selecting a digital source input with DAC-Loop activated, the display will read BAL for a short time. This indicates that both the selected digital input and the balanced input are active."
Of course, my proposed solution above will bypass the H300’s internal dac. I would expect the H300’s internal dac to be of high quality and, therefore, would expect the cost of an external dac (with a digital input and l+r xlr outputs) that matches or exceeds the performance of the H300’s internal dac to be somewhat expensive.
Unfortunately, this is the best solution I can think of thus far for your situation.
Hope this helped a bit,
Tim
