Best set-up for a new amp

I need some opinions on how best to set-up an amp. It's an Audio Research VSi55 integrated but no phono stage. So I'm using my old NAD 7130 for a phono stage and at the moment connecting through its tape out to the other amp.
The NAD allows you to disconnect its pre-amp from amp, should I hook the NAD to the AR that way, directly from the pre-amp?

 

No. You would be introducing the volume control section of the NAD if you did it that way.

Regards,
Geoff

 

It does, it's unnecessary I know but why is that bad?

 

Because the signal has to go through not only the NAD volume control (probably not as good as the one on the AR) but unless you can switch out the tone controls on the NAD the signal is going through them too and picking up whatever nasty things they do to its phase. I have an old NAD 7175 and if I remember right the tape in/out are loop through so what you are doing is the cleanest why of getting to the phono stage on the NAD.

 

If the Audio Research integrated allows you to separate pre and power amps, you could use the NAD preamp with the Audio Research power amp section, but I'd think you'd rather use the Audio Research preamp.
If you hook up the NAD preamp into one of the line level inputs in the Audio Research, I think you'd risk overloading the input and distorting the sound.
Using the tape out from the NAD is safest.

 

They are loop through. And they are the only tape outs I have, the AR has no outputs at all (except for speaker). I was hoping to find a way to hook this up for good sound but also allow me to record without switching cables.

Thanks

The AR doesn't separate pre-amp and amp like the NAD, tape out I guess is going to be the best option, thanks for that explaination.

 

You could just use Y cords to split the tape output from the NAD. Will that hurt the sound? I dunno. Conventional conventional wisdom says "Of course not". Conventional audiophile wisdom says "Of course!". Try it and see. It's always a trade off: Purity of sound vs. convenience. The older I get, the more I opt for convenience.

I'm surprised the AR has no tape outs. A serious ommission in my book.

 

A "Y" chord is something I would have used at one point but some electronics person told me not to, "electricity isn't like water". I don't know, I have very little understanding of how electronics actually work, but wouldn't a "Y" add a lot of resistance?

 

Oh boy, do I wish electronics people would realize that a little knowledge can be dangerous. Actually for simple DC circuits electricity is a lot like water. Electrical current (I) flowing in a wire (or cable) is equal to the voltage difference (V) between the voltage at the start of the wire and the voltage at the end of the wire divided by the DC electrical resistance (R) of the wire. I=V/R The resistance of the wire is higher for thin wire and less for thicker wire. Thus if you think of the volume of water in a hose as the current, the pressure that is forcing the water to flow as the voltage and the diameter of the hose as giving resistance to the flow (fat hose has less resistance) then you have a water / electricity analogy. Using this analogy for the "Y", if it is properly designed, each leg has the same diameter and the pressure at the end of each exit leg is the same (i.e. you do not put your thumb over opening in one leg of the "Y") the the flow in each leg will be 1/2 of what it is the main leg because the amount of water has to be conserved. Thus if the voltage is the same at each exit end of the "Y" cord and it is properly designed it will have 1/2 the current in each leg. Do not go too far with this analogy unless you're willing to do a lot of reading about electronics.

 

So a Y will not hurt the equipment and won't degrade the signal.

 

It should not hurt the equipment, the signal will only have half the current, which should work. There is a small chance that the 1/2 current level would be too low to activate the circuits in the AR, but I really doubt it.

 

EC3970, This is why I said a little knowledge can be dangerous, I just realized that my answer above assumes all of the circuits in your system are current sources and therefore current limiting. They could all be voltage sources and will supply whatever current it takes to maintain the voltage. Then if you had both the phono and the tape loop on and they both needed to draw full current to maintain the voltage you could overheat the phono stage because it would have to supply too much current. So my advice is if your equipment has circuit diagrams show it to someone who understands electronics and let he/she help you.

By the way, what is an EC3970? In the technical world an EC is an engineering change and they are usually given numbers. Are you the 3970th engineering change?

 

The EC3970 is the icon i use, 000-28EC #3970 Since I first came here by way of the Martin Guitar discussion board I kept the same name.

I would like the convenience of using a Y but I think it will defeat the audiophile interconnects. I'm just going to get a better rack and reconfigure the setup depending on what I'm doing with the vinyl, listening or recording.