Last time, our engineer covered the audio equipment stacks on either side of his laptop. But what do they connect to, and what connects to them? Read on for the remaining details.

I wrapped up the initial entry in this two-part series with the following prose:

So far, we’ve covered the two stacks’ details. But what does each’s remaining S/PDIF DAC input connect to? And to what do they connect on the output end, and how? Stay tuned for part 2 to come next for the answers to these questions, along with other coverage topics.

“Next” is now. Here again is the unbalanced (i.e., single-ended) connection setup to the right of my laptop:

And here’s its higher-end balanced counterpart to the left:

Transducer details

As was the case last time in describing both stacks, I’m going to begin this explanation of the remainder of the audio playback chain at the end (with the speakers and power amplifiers), working my way from there back through the stacks to the beginning (the other audio sources). I’ll start by sharing another photo, of the right-channel speaker and associated hardware, that regular readers have already seen, first as a reference in the comment section and subsequently as an embedded image within the main writeup:

Here’s the relevant excerpt from the first post’s comments section:

I thought I’d share one initial photo from my ears-on testing of the Schiit Rekkr. The speakers are located 3.5 feet away from me and tilted slightly downward (for tweeter-positioning alignment with my ears) and toward the center listening position. As mentioned in the writeup, they’re Audioengine’s P4 Passives. And the stands are from Monoprice. As you’ll see, I’m currently running two Rekkrs, each one in monoblock mode.

Here’s a “stock” photo of the speakers:

Along with a “stock” photo of one of the stands:

At this point, you might be asking yourself a question along the lines of the following: “He’s got two audio equipment stacks…how does he drive a single set of speakers from both of them?” The answer, dear readers, is at the bottom of the left speaker, which you haven’t yet seen:

That’s another Schiit Sys passive switch, the same as the one in the earlier right-of-laptop stack albeit a different color, and this time underneath the Rekkr power amplifier at that location:

The rear-panel RCA outputs of the Schiit Vali 2++ (PDF) tube-based headphone amplifier at the top of the right-side stack:

and the 3.5 mm (“1/8 in.”) single-ended headphone mini-jack at the front of the Drop + THX AAA 789 amplifier at the top of the left-side stack:

Both route to it, and I as-desired use the Sys to switch between them, with the Sys outputs then connected to the Rekkrs. Well…sorta. There’s one more link in the chain between the Sys and the Rekkrs that I haven’t yet mentioned.

Wireless connectivity

The Audioengine P4 Passives deliver great sound, especially considering their compact size, but their front ported design can’t completely counterbalance the fact that the woofers are only 4” in diameter. Therefore explaining the other Audioengine speaker in the room, the company’s compact (albeit perfect for the office’s diminutive dimensions) P6 subwoofer based on a 6″ long throw front-firing woofer along with an integrated 140W RMS Class D amplifier:

And since I’d purchased the wireless variant of the P6, Audiosource had also bundled its W3 wireless transmitter and receiver kit with the subwoofer:

The Sys left and right outputs both get split, with each output then routing in parallel both to the relevant Rekkr and to the W3 transmitter input’s correct channel. The receiver is roughly 12 feet away, to my left at the end of the room and connected to (and powered by) the back panel of the W6 subwoofer.

The transmitter and receiver aren’t even close to being line-of-sight aligned with each other, but the 2.4 GHz ISM band link between them still does a near-perfect job of managing connectivity. The only time I encounter dropouts, and then only briefly, is when a water-rich object (i.e., one of the humans, or our dog) moves in-between them. And although I was initially worried that the active W3 transmissions might destructively interfere with Bluetooth and/or Wi-Fi, I’m happy to report I haven’t experienced any degradation here, either.

Audio source diversity

That covers one end of the chain: now, what about the non-computer audio sources? There’s only one device, actually, shared between the two stacks, although its functional flexibility enables both native and connected content source diversity. And you’ve already heard about it, too; it’s the Bluesound NODE N130 that I initially mentioned at the beginning of 2023:

It integrates support for a diversity of streaming music services; although I could alternatively “tune in” to this same content via a connected computer, it’s nice not to have to bother booting one up if all I want to do is relax and audition some tunes. Integrated Bluetooth connectivity mates it easily with my Audio-Technica AT-LP60XBT turntable:

And a wiring harness mates it with the analog audio output of my ancient large-screen LCD computer monitor, acting as a pseudo TV in combination with my Xbox 360 (implementing Media Center Extender functionality) and Google Chromecast with Google TV.

The Bluesound NODE N130 has three audio output options, which conveniently operate concurrently: analog and both optical and coaxial (RCA) S/PDIF. The first goes to my Yamaha SR-C20A sound bar, the successor to the ill-fated Hisense unit I groused about back in mid-2023:

And the other two route to the Drop + Grace Design Standard DAC Balanced at the bottom of the left-side stack (optical S/PDIF):

and the Schiit Modi Multibit 1 DAC at the bottom of the right-side stack (coaxial RCA S/PDIF):

The multi-stack connectivity repetition is somewhat superfluous, but since it was a feasible possibility, I figured, why not? That said, I can always redirect one of the stack’s DACs to some other digitally tethered to-be-acquired widget in the future. And as mentioned in part 1 of this series, the Modi Multibit 1’s other (optical) S/PDIF input remains unpopulated right now, too.

That’s all (at least for now), folks

After a two-post series spanning 2,000+ words, there’s my combo home office and “man cave” audio setup in (much more than) a nutshell. Feedback is, as always, welcomed in the comments!

—Brian Dipert is the Principal at Sierra Media and a former technical editor at EDN Magazine, where he still regularly contributes as a freelancer.

Related Content

• Sonic excellence: Music (and other audio sources) in the office, part 1
• Audio amplifiers: How much power (and at what tradeoffs) is really required?
• Audio Amplifiers from Class A, B, D to T
• Class D audio power amplifiers: Adding punch to your sound design
• Audio amplifier selection in hearable designs
• The Schiit Modi Multibit: A little wiggling ensures this DAC won’t quit

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