Mainline Integration (wider system)

[Paulo83]

Hi all,

Having excitedly just pulled the trigger on the current Mainline sale (despite lusting for a LONG time), I was curious to ask what possibilities there are for integrating the Mainline into a wider 2 channel/headphone system.

I apologise in advance for the noob questions I'm about to drop!

I'm keen to co-locate and if possible integrate the Mainline into my current 2 channel system as much as possible to limit swapping sources etc based on my listening scenario.

I have previously seen people mention running the Mainline as a preamp into a power amp. (First noob question) is there any reason I wouldn't/shouldn't run the Mainline output into my exposure Integrated amp? My thinking here is I could input my DAC output and phono output into the Mainline and listen via the balanced out for headphones and switch to the SE out if I wanted to listen via my speakers. Essentially this is just to avoid adding some kind of switching unit to my sources.

(Second noob question) what would happen if I ran my turntable straight into the Mainline? Is it capable of acting as a phono stage or can it be easily(ish) modded to do so?

Please be gentle, I'm new!

Paul Cawley

[Paul Birkeland]

is there any reason I wouldn't/shouldn't run the Mainline output into my exposure Integrated amp? My thinking here is I could input my DAC output and phono output into the Mainline and listen via the balanced out for headphones and switch to the SE out if I wanted to listen via my speakers. Essentially this is just to avoid adding some kind of switching unit to my sources.

It looks like some of those Exposure integrated amps have a tape loop in them, so perhaps you could consider just running the tape output of the Exposure into the Mainline.

(Second noob question) what would happen if I ran my turntable straight into the Mainline?

You would get very quiet/noisy music with no bass and a ton of treble. 

Is it capable of acting as a phono stage or can it be easily(ish) modded to do so?

You'll need an external phono preamp for that purpose.

[Paulo83]

Hey, thanks for the reply!

My Integrated amp does indeed have a tape loop. So would it be better to run the sources into the Integrated amp and output them via tape out to the Mainline for headphone use vs running the sources via the Mainline into the Integrated amp's Aux in for 2 channel use? I assume maybe the tape out to mainline would be a 'cleaner' signal path?

I was assuming that was the case ref phono stages, I was just hoping I could declutter slightly.

Paul

[Doc B.]

Yes, run the tape loop out into the Mainline.

[Paulo83]

Thanks so much for your help gents, much appreciated.