Making the LC3 Earn its Keep

[eleaf]

So as I was setting up and wiring my new analog system last night, I ran into a wiring conundrum with 2.5 options to get the job done.

My 2 channel tube amplifier doesn't have any form of Preamp out or dedicated subwoofer out (LFE) so I had to figure a way to hook up my 2.1 system (my current speakers don't fill out the bottom end to my satisfaction, though I suspect that the Mordaunt Short Mezzo 6 speakers on the way might fix that issue and allow me to run a 2.0 configuration).

Making that Little Country 3 Tube Headpone Amp earn its keep.

I don't particularly care to run a parallel speaker setup. It just plain seems like the least desirable way to run sound to the speakers. I don't like the idea of doubling up speaker wire on either the amp or the speakers.

The headphone amp I chose, I did so for various reasons. I could have gotten a terminal amp where my only output option was the headphones and been done with it. It would certainly be cheaper (because I wouldn't have to worry about any components after the headphone amp), but then I couldn't get that warm, room filling goodness that only speakers can provide (as nice and precise as headphones are, I don't always like the feeling of the sound emanating from inside my head). This meant some form of Preamp with multiple outputs in between my phono Preamp and the headphone amp (outs to both the headphone amp and the amplifier), or a headphone amp that did some double duty (or triple as the case may be). The headphone amp I chose, the Little Country 3 Tube Headphone Amplfier/Preamp by Firestone Audio. Initially it was because it had a bypass out option which acts as nothing more than a passthrough so I could run my sound through to the amplifier without any manipulation of the signal, but then I also came to the conclusion that it would solve my parallel speaker setup issue that I wanted to avoid by running it also as the Preamp it's designed to be. One set of straight line interconnects through the bypass out and on to the amp, another set from the Preamp out and on to the powered subwoofer, and of course headphones plugged in. This little booger is serving as the lynchpin for my entire system, feeding my headphones some great sound (so far - it only has a couple of hours on the tubes so it hasn't even started to break in yet), and routing the signal where it needs to go in order to avoid undesirable speaker wiring when I'm not using headphones.

Everything this little box is capable of doing, it's doing. It's paying its way.