Please title your topic with Feature request and then a short description, e.g. Feature request, Firmware: direct access to airable favourites. Please add the tag request to the topic.
Short description of requested feature
Permit Pre-out with speakers muted.
I have a dedicated headphone amp and Grado SR325e. I cannot find a way to have the speakers muted and still have Pre-out delivering via RCA to the headphone amp.
Headphone out is … ok, but dedicated Headphone amp is better.
Plugging anything into the headphone amp either mutes Pre-out and speakers or (with the option in the menu “Settings > Audio Settings > Phones Ovr = Off” ) allows speakers to remain loud.
How Could that work?
Add menu setting to “Settings > Audio Settings > Force Pre-out = On”
User community interest
Would you be interested in such feature? Please reply.
On surface I would agree this sounds like a good idea.
To add a little more flexibility I think I’d also like to see the pre-out switchable to be a line-out
I’m afraid it might not be possible. I’m just guessing here, but i would think it’s a design choice, and signal path cannot be changed using a firmware.
To be able to mute the speakers one would need relays between pre-amp section and power maps, or at least relays just before speaker posts. If it’s not there, there nothing you can do with about it with software.
For volume control it’s similar. There would need to be some relays, that bypass volume control chip.
But let’s wait for reply from Arcam
Our engineer has added a new menu option PRE OUT MUTE On/Off.
On means the unit will function exactly as before.
Off will leave the preouts active when headphones are plugged in (whilst muting speakers).
You requested that the preouts to be unmuted when you mute the unit. The issue with this is as soon as you touch the volume the speakers would unmute, due to the way the SA30 handles muting. To change how and when we unmute depending on the setting of this preout mute option is not straight forward and doubtless there would be knock on effects that we have not considered. One benefit of the way our engineer has implemented the feature is the unit thinks headphones are present which will turn Dirac off (which is what you want).
So the drawback is to use a separate headphone amp you will have to plug a 3.5mm jack into the front panel.
The advantages are:
Full volume control and the speakers not unmuting.
Dirac disabled when you are using an external headphone amp.
All the other edge cases we have not considered are basically already dealt with as the unit basically just works as it always did with headphones plugged in.
Realistically, this is the only feasible way to implement this feature.
That’s pretty incredible and I am very pleased.
I’m going to give it a try later - what are the odds that I decide your headphone circuit is at least as good as the Schiit amp I was thinking of using anyway?
So, round of applause, huge thanks, and 5 gold stars from me
I’ll let you know when there’s a new beta available with it in. I know it’s a bit clunky of an implementation, but the important thing is it does what you want it to do!
The description of the required functionality is well defined. I would also be interested in this possibility. A headphone amplifier permanently plugged into the Pre-Out, which IS NOT switched off during the Mute function for the speakers. This is a Super Idea.
I think you’ve twisted something or I can’t understand you. The idea is that Pre-Out is always on if PRE OU MUTE is set to Off. And it’s not about the headphone jack on the front of the case, it’s about the Pre-Out jack on the back.
