Project Ember

I was playing around with my LSR 305's Input Sensitivity Switch and used +4 dBu instead of the usual -10dBV setting despite feeding an unbalanced line out signal (via RCA to TS cables) from the Ember to them

To my surprise, once I increased the volume on the LSRs just a bit more, I can get sound, better trebles but somewhat less energy. Less hissing also. Is the Ember outputting a mic level signal or still a line level signal?

Also, does this mean a DI box is not needed at all or just get first if possible? I am ordering stuff tonight and I think I can also order one if need be

Thanks for the link! With that, I found other useful ones like this: www.rane.com/note110.html

I understand that DI boxes are kind of overkill for my situation but I am just unsure of just one thing which is influencing my asking about it:

Is unbalanced signal just good enough or should I strive for a balanced signal whenever possible?

This is something that I cannot Google easily unfortunately, the debate about it is... quite complicated to say the least. I get that balanced signals allow much longer signal lines and less noise (e.g. common mode noise) but also that making the audio chain more complicated can lead to noise and other issues

Edit: Yes, I remember your advice that I do not need to worry about the DI box, it is just that niggling concern (most probably triggered by Black Friday...?) about balanced signal that I want to straighten out once and for all

Thanks! I brought this up is that I am seeing some people using DI boxes to connect to the LSRs using balanced XLR and I thought it will make things better

I read through the manual again and can confirm that it mentions that it can be used with consumer equipment and that unbalanced signal can be used too: "The 3 Series Speakers are equipped with balanced XLR and 6 mm (¼") TRS inputs for connection to professional
 computer audio interfaces, mixing consoles and audio production equipment as well as unbalanced consumer
audio products including personal music players, consumer audio receivers and audio visual equipment. Connect
professional equipment with balanced outputs to the XLR or 6 mm (¼") TRS input of the speaker using balanced
signal cables."

Based on what you mentioned, I think this means that the LSRs is merely being flexible in allowing both consumer and professional equipment, with their varying output signal strength and regardless of them being balanced or not, to be used since most powered speakers usually cannot do this.

In short, my deduction of all these is to just use the best connector available at hand and do not add additional stuff to the chain without strong reasons?

I am quite interested in knowing how you know that the LSRs is internally single ended; this is the first time I heard that about the LSRs as I was under the impression that it is internally balanced too

Yes, a matter of soldering 2 resistors on the underside of the PCB in parallel to 2 existing resistors

You need to buy 2 resistors and be able to solder them on the bottom.
To determine the values of the resistors I need to know how much extra dB you need.

Hey pps, I have been enjoying a project ember as preamp for my system for about 3 months now. Stil a very happy customer so far. I read up on the last like 50 pages of this thread and am curious about the linear PSU, is it til in the pipeline? I didnt find anny info about it on the website and last i read about it here was like 10 pages back.

What alternatives are available in this case? (I feel that this is a good-to-have rather than a must-have unless the power supply in the house is that unclean though)

Also, I checked on my side for my case, turns out that actually I have had a strange habit of not wanting to use the full pot. As in, prior to my testing, I was playing music at 89 dB (due to ReplayGain). At 12 o'clock position, the music was already quite loud; going further would have damaged my hearing for sure. I then played around with the volume attenuator and realised that even with the attenuator, the music is still decently loud at 4 o'clock position. Even softer sources can still be heard clearly. This also sounds good despite getting my LSRs to be at the less sensitive position. Best part is that despite the pot being at the maximum position, the sound quality does not drop unlike some other audio products (which was where I think that habit came from)