Dear experts,

I feel like I am attempting to achieve an audio Unified Theory, and I
need some help. I want to hook up various things into a power amp and
speakers and would like some advice on the best way to go about it.

I have a Hafler TA1100 power amp that is driving a pair of B&W DM-303
speakers. Currently, I have my Yamaha P-90 digital piano running by
MIDI into a Roland XV-2020 sound module and from there into my Hafler
amp by 1/4" cables. This is working great (just for home use).

However, I would like to add my living room stereo components--CD
player, iPod (RCA outputs), and maybe tape deck--so that they all run
through the amp and speakers as well. If possible, having an input for
an XLR microphone would be an added bonus.

My Hafler amp only has one set of inputs (L+R) (well, actually you can
choose either 1/4" inputs or RCA inputs, but you can't use them both at
the same time). So I am thinking I need some sort of input selector,
mixer, or preamp to add the extra components.

What would be the best way to achieve this? I do have a stereo preamp
lying around that I could use, but I don't know if it would be a good
idea to step all my components (i.e, keyboard and potentially
microphone) down to RCA jacks (wouldn't I lose some fidelity doing
that?).

Any advice is most appreciated. Many thanks, Matt

"Matt" wrote in message
oups.com

My Hafler amp only has one set of inputs (L+R) (well, actually you can
choose either 1/4" inputs or RCA inputs, but you can't use them both
at the same time). So I am thinking I need some sort of input
selector, mixer, or preamp to add the extra components.

What would be the best way to achieve this? I do have a stereo preamp
lying around that I could use, but I don't know if it would be a good
idea to step all my components (i.e, keyboard and potentially
microphone) down to RCA jacks (wouldn't I lose some fidelity doing
that?).

Any advice is most appreciated. Many thanks, Matt

Is this close? http://www.mackie.com/products/bigknob/

Most home stereo preamps serve as kind of a "hub" where all your audio
sources plug into....usually you can only select one at a time though. Most
use RCA and do not have any balanced inputs for a microphone although I'm
sure you could find one that would perform this function.

Your problem is that you are trying to mix consumer equipment with
professional equipment, consumer line levels with pro line levels,
high-impedance with low-impedance, balanced with unbalanced and RCA with TS
and XLR.

IMHO the best way to do this is get a decent mixer, something like a Mackie
1202 or 1604 or the behringer equivalent. You can use female RCA to male
1/4" TS adapters to plugin all your RCA stuff, your instruments plugin
normally, mics go to XLR and you can adjust the trim and faders to get
proper levels for all equipment....unfortunately you'll have to buy an
external speaker selector unit to send your SPEAKER LEVEL signal to
different sources after it has been amplified by your hafler. BTW you
shouldn't hear any noticable difference switching between RCA and 1/4" TS,
they are both 2 conductors. XLR and TRS to RCA is a different story. Good
luck!

--

Jonny Durango

"Patrick was a saint. I ain't."

http://www.jdurango.com



"Matt" wrote in message
oups.com...
Dear experts,

I feel like I am attempting to achieve an audio Unified Theory, and I
need some help. I want to hook up various things into a power amp and
speakers and would like some advice on the best way to go about it.

I have a Hafler TA1100 power amp that is driving a pair of B&W DM-303
speakers. Currently, I have my Yamaha P-90 digital piano running by
MIDI into a Roland XV-2020 sound module and from there into my Hafler
amp by 1/4" cables. This is working great (just for home use).

However, I would like to add my living room stereo components--CD
player, iPod (RCA outputs), and maybe tape deck--so that they all run
through the amp and speakers as well. If possible, having an input for
an XLR microphone would be an added bonus.

My Hafler amp only has one set of inputs (L+R) (well, actually you can
choose either 1/4" inputs or RCA inputs, but you can't use them both at
the same time). So I am thinking I need some sort of input selector,
mixer, or preamp to add the extra components.

What would be the best way to achieve this? I do have a stereo preamp
lying around that I could use, but I don't know if it would be a good
idea to step all my components (i.e, keyboard and potentially
microphone) down to RCA jacks (wouldn't I lose some fidelity doing
that?).

Any advice is most appreciated. Many thanks, Matt

Thanks Arny, Jonny, and Mike,

Very helpful info. After looking around, I decided to go with an Art
416 mixer. It has 6 channels, with both RCA and XLR, and I'll use
adapters to go from RCA to 1/4" when necessary. It's a rack unit, which
is nice for my setup, and has phantom power for condenser mics, which
is nice. And it wasn't too much $$ - about $120.

Many thanks, Matt