Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Technical Questions Can I leave my power amp off in this config?

I am in the process of setting up my stereo system to support a secondary tube amp for headphone use and I'm wondering if this is OK. Just want to make sure I don't inadvertently damage my tube equipment.

Right now, I have a Rotel 1070 stereo pre-amp. One of the sources is my Ah! Njoeb tube CD player. It's powered by some ASL AV-25 mono blocks that are connected to my Von Schweikert VR1 speakers.

I want to use my spare Sophia Baby amp to drive some headphones but still use my Ah! Njoeb CD player. I don't want to swap cables though. So, I believe I should be able to connect the REC OUT from the Rotel into the RCA inputs of the Sophia. When I have the Rotel set to the CD player, the REC OUT can drive the Sophia.

My question is this: Can I leave my mono blocks off when the Rotel, Ah! and Sophia are running? I don't know if the Rotel's active output could cause a long term problem for my mono blocks, which could be turned off.

Thanks.

I would be stunned if turning off your power amp while the pre-amp is active would cause any kind of problems. Check with your power amp manufacturer if you want to be absolutely certain, but this is more-or-less the same setup I have (power amp + pre-pro + headphone amp) and there is no problem whatsover when my power amp is off or my headphone amp is off (they feed from a Y-split off the front LR pre-out).

No, you wont hurt your amp by it being fed a signal when its off