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Now my long-awaited Tridents are on order, I'll have all the components for going dual-mono. Looking at Leon's integration guide I'm OK with the DIP switch settings and the way to connect up for SP/DIF input, but I'm not sure about the outputs from the Legatos.
I assume I use SE & GND on the left output of Legato for left, & the same connections on the right Legato, i.e. SE & GND on the right output?
I was assuming this was correct but noticed with balanced outputs you also connect across to the other channel on both Legatos.
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My Legato 3.1s have Ballsie stages built in Leon. I've seen the diagram for the Ivy stage but that's what has confused me.
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What's confusing? IVY3 also has a built-in Ballsie, but you still need another one for dual mono. Dual mono uses the SE Left, SE Right and GND connections. So each I/V stage already is using it's built-in SE converter. You need another Ballsie for converting the signal to SE.
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Oh heavens, just when I thought I was getting to grips with this...
So, I need a Ballsie Light, and take the balanced outputs from both Legatos (presumably one from the left side of one Legato & one from the right) and ignore the SE outputs? Will it be OK to power the additional Ballsie from one of the HD BP Placids that power the Legatos?
Sorry to ask such questions but I'm very much a newbie to all this and really appreciate your help.
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No, like I stated and in the diagram: the I/V stage outputs it's signal on left SE, right SE and GND. This is a balanced signal. You feed this signal into a Ballsie Lite. Then you take the other I/V stage, and connect those left SE, right SE and GND to the other half of the Ballsie. Please note the change in phase: pin 2 is left SE on the left channel and right SE on the right channel.
I have taken 2 Ballsies to maintain 100% channel separation, and I've powered them from their respective Placid BP's. I was using the IVY3 however, but you have the advantage of using a Placid BP HD. You should be fine, but do check your shunt current.
It's better to ask a LOT of questions and get top notch performance than to ask too little and risk failure.
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Hi Tony - don't want to add to any confusion that remains, but there are a couple of other possibilities you might consider. It is possible to do dual mono BII's into a single Legato - there's a thread about that on DIYAudio which eventually achieves clarity about how to wire it all together. If I remember, Russ's view was that for ultimate best sound quality, 2 Legatos would be preferable but I don't know if that would necessarily apply when you need SE output and are therefore introducing a further Ballsie stage to the chain. Alternatively, depending on where the output is going, it might be possible to do the balanced to SE conversion at the other end i.e. at the input to preamp or power amp, where you could insert a Ballsie stage or transformers. Edited by user Wednesday, July 27, 2011 7:15:49 AM(UTC)
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No matter what configuration you choose, in this case you'll always end up with an Ballsie in the chain. It's the on-board Ballsie in a single Legato, or the on-board Ballsie and Ballsie Lite when using dual mono Legato's. The ultimate setup would be using just balanced out from 2 Legato's, but this would require a balanced amp.
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Many thanks for your patience and help! I've reached the age whereby I'm never afraid to ask questions, no matter how daft they seem to others. Gordon, I've already got two Legato 3.1s built, plus the two HD BP Placids to power them, so no advantage in going for the single Legato setup. Order to be placed for two Ballsie Lites, & I'll take it from there. As The Terminator said "I'll Be Back..." ;-) I'd like to understand how & why this all works please? Edited by user Wednesday, July 27, 2011 11:09:43 PM(UTC)
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Do we have to have Ballsie back to back for SE out of dual mono buffalo / dual legato? That doens't particulalry looks good for the best possible sonic. Couldn't we just tap + and G from legato on-board BAL/SE ? ( that is, i.e. left and G of legato on board BAL/SE, leaving the right side out)? Now I understand, if it were balanced output BEFORE the BAL /SE on legato, then the sound would suffer higher distortion. However in this way, we are taping entire channel of B II / Legato, don't know why it would induce distortion? And how about connecting 1 BAL/SE to the balanced output of BII BEFORE the on-board BAL/SE for the IN-PHASE channel, leaving out the inverted phase channel. This way we can use SE and BAL output at the same time.
What do you think?
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Ah. Looking a bit more carefully, it appears I could use one Ballsie Lite, but two will give a better result. Edited by user Thursday, July 28, 2011 4:43:29 AM(UTC)
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I notice there's a choice of op-amp. What's the difference between the two please?
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IMO It's mainly a matter of preference. But you could also mount the DIP-8 so you can swap out the opamp at a later time.
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Thanks again for your valuable advice Leon - two Ballsie-Lites duly ordered with the Burr-Brown Op-amps.
Really looking forward to going "Dual-Mono"!
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Sorry for another daft question or two! My Ballsies/Tridents/transformers are due any day now so I've been getting my head round the connections. All's pretty clear now but one thing I can't quite grasp; I'm using a single SPDIF input so this goes to one Buffalo, set the SPDIF switch to 'on', then connect from D1 & Ground to the other Buffalo's D1 & Ground input (with its SPDIF switch set to 'off')- but how does this work please? Surely I'll be going from the first Buffalo's input & using it as an output?
Another question - I intend to use two 9V TP transformers to power the two HD Placids for the Buffalos - but can I get away with one?
Thanks for your help in advance!
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If you're going to have Tridents installed on both BIIs then I would suggest you buy a single Low Current Dual Power Supply (LCDPS) from TP
I have a dual mono setup and it is what I use. sound is fantastic in dual mono, it was already amazing in stereo but now all heaven sings! :)
Ciao
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Quote:Sorry for another daft question or two! My Ballsies/Tridents/transformers are due any day now so I've been getting my head round the connections. All's pretty clear now but one thing I can't quite grasp; I'm using a single SPDIF input so this goes to one Buffalo, set the SPDIF switch to 'on', then connect from D1 & Ground to the other Buffalo's D1 & Ground input (with its SPDIF switch set to 'off')- but how does this work please? Surely I'll be going from the first Buffalo's input & using it as an output?
Another question - I intend to use two 9V TP transformers to power the two HD Placids for the Buffalos - but can I get away with one?
Thanks for your help in advance! 1. The answer is really very simple: just wire it like it's described. The background: if you would run parallel wires like you describe to both boards, and use the comparator on both you also would get two 75 ohm terminations. By doing it the way it's laid out in the guide, you'll get correct termination (from 1 board), and you'll feed the second board from the first boards' comparator. It's a very neat solution from Russ. 2. You could do that provided the transformer is powerful enough. The standard 2x9V/0.83A should certainly be enough.
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Thanks for the help folks. Leon, I've read your excellent Integration Guide so I was intending to wire the SPDIF as you described. I was just curious as to how the D1 input on a Buffalo could automatically become output; presumably it's the comparator that does this? On the transformer front, I guess the single transformer will do the job OK - it's going to supply the Buffalos/Tridents via the Placid HDs with 2x 5.25V/~900mA. Pinnocchio, I've already got the two Placid HDs so it'll be convenient to use these, rather than get the LCDPS. Luckily, I've got a big case! Edited by user Saturday, August 13, 2011 3:59:10 AM(UTC)
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Quote:presumably it's the comparator that does this? I assume so. I don't make the design, Russ and Brian do that. I just collect the bits of information and arrange them in a more convenient form ;)
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 ...and a very good job you make of it Leon!
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