Headphones and the Devialet

[Womaz]

@Womaz - hello again!

It looks to me as though the Taurus only has analog input, so I expect you have configured your 200 to use two RCA sockets as a stereo analog pre-amp output.  Since the 200 is receiving digital data from the Nucleus, it must be using an internal DAC to convert to analog.  (Note: this is not the same DAC that drives the ADH power amplifier section to which the loudspeakers are connected.)

You could re-configure the Devialet to give you a digital (S/P-DIF) output on one of the RCA sockets instead of the analog output.  That would enable you to connect an external DAC which could then send an analog signal to the Taurus.

The first question is whether the new DAC would sound better to you than the internal DAC the 200 uses to generate the analog pre-amp output.  If so, is it worth the cost and extra box count?  As usual I'd say that only you can decide, and probably only by getting a demonstration to compare the two ways of doing it.

Incidentally if you're thinking of buying another box, why not consider a headphone amp with a digital input?  Or possibly a Roon-Ready DAC that would act as its own endpoint without depending on your Devialet?

I should have asked: is your Nucleus physically close to where you want your headphone amp to sit?  For example, could you connect USB from the Nucleus to a DAC or digital-capable headphone amp?

Forget the PS .........clearly no point in exploring this as there will be no Digital to analogue conversion ;--)

I don’t know whether this will help you, but when I was setting up my Taurus, I tried listening to CD, SACD and BluRay from my Oppo directly to the Taurus using XLR-XLR and RCA-RCA. I couldn’t detect any difference in sound quality.
I went with XLR in the end, but only because I needed the RCA inputs on the Taurus  for connection to the Devialet.

Thanks for the post. Yes I think I have come to the conclusion that Balanced would be nice, but its not a game changer for me.