Sennheiser HD 800s & ifi Zen Can3 & Marantz Cinema 30

Amplifiers
1

HI,

Just bought the ifi Zen Can 3 to connect it to my Marantz Cinema 30 and Sennheiser HD 800s Headphones, I cannot figure what is the best way to connect all three, I’ve read in some places to use the balanced 4.4mm to dual-rca cable between the Cinema 30 and ifi Zen Can3 and then connect the balanced cable of the headphone to the ifi Zen Can balanced input.

In other placed to use the standard RCA cable on both the Cinema 30 and Zen Can 3.

Can you recommended the better connection and what should be the best connection between the HD 800s and the Zen Can.

Thanks in advance.

2

If you are intending to send audio from your cinema 30 to the iFi so that you can listen to the content produced through the cinema 30, you will need to use the RCA from the cinema 30 to the can 3. There’s no way to get a balanced signal from the cinema 30 to the can 3 because this cinema 30 has no balanced output. You cannot connect from RCA output to balanced input.

To get a safe, pristine signal from the Marantz to the iFi, you should utilize the RCA Inputs located right on the back of the iFi Zen Can 3.Use a standard RCA-to-RCA stereo cable.

  1. Plug one end into the Zone 2 (or Zone 3) Pre Out on the back of the Marantz. Both outputs function perfectly for sending an independent or mirrored 2-channel stereo mix to an external headphone amp.

  2. Plug the other end into the RCA inputs on the back of the iFi.

  3. Press the input selector button on the front of the iFi until the RCA input LED lights up.

Do You Lose Balanced Performance?

Not at all. You do not need a balanced input signal to get the benefits of a balanced headphone output.

The iFi Zen Can 3 features an internal circuit topology that takes the single-ended RCA input and converts it into a balanced architecture before it reaches the internal amplifier stages. As long as you plug your headphones into the 4.4mm balanced headphone jack on the front panel, you will still get the maximum power, voltage, and fidelity the amplifier has to offer.

Audio Routing

In the Marantz AVR settings under Zone Setup, configure the selected zone volume to “Fixed” rather than “Variable.” This passes a clean, full-strength line-level signal to the iFi Zen Can 3, allowing you to control the listening volume entirely via the iFi volume knob.

However, in order for you to down mix a multi channel signal, such as an HDMI signal from a Blu-ray player to stereo out of the zone 2, you can do the following:

The Marantz Menu Fix (Configure Once)

You can set the receiver to automatically downmix the incoming HDMI audio specifically for your Zone output:

1. Open the Marantz Setup Menu on your screen.

2. Go to General > ZONE2 Setup (or ZONE3 depending on which one you plugged the iFi into).

3. Find the setting called HDMI Audio and change it from Through to PCM.

What this does: When this is set to PCM, the Marantz will grab the multi-channel HDMI audio from the Blu-ray player, downmix it to a high-quality 2-channel stereo signal inside the receiver, and send it directly out to your iFi amplifier.

One Catch: When you set “HDMI Audio” to “PCM” in the Zone settings, if you happen to have the Main Zone speakers turned on at the same time and playing the exact same Blu-ray, your main home theater speakers will also drop down to 2-channel stereo. But since your plan is to turn the speaker feed off anyway when using your headphones, this setting is the perfect solution for your setup.

3

Many thanks BudKine for your detailed reply and thorough explanation, I couldn’t have asked for more. God Bless.

Few points to highlight.

In my Setup , everything is connected to the Sony Bravia 9 and then using the eArc from Bravia 9 to the Marantz with the exception of;
1- Turntable for obvious reason.
2- Panasonic DP-UB9000E 4K Player, HDMI Video out to TV, HDMI Aufio out to Marantz.
3- I couldn’t do this with the the Denon DBT-3313UDCI Blu ray (Split the HDMI) as I ran out of HDMI’s on the TV, So HDMI out from Denon directly to Cinema 30 which I assume is better as I use it solely to play SACD and CD’s.

I also happen to have Cassette player :grinning_face: connected to the Marantz directly.

I have a 7.4.1 setup and given that the Denon DBT-3313UDCI Blu ray plays SACD and is connected to the Cinema 30 using HDMI, meaning it’ll play multichannel 7.4.1 through Marantz, I went ahead and bought the Marantz CD 6007 and I’ll connect it directly to the Cinema 30 using RCA and I believe it’ll enable me to listen to 2 ch music.

FYI, I spend 70% of my time watching 4K movies through the Panasonic DP-UB9000E player as well as live sports & 30% listening to music SACD, CD, Movie Soundtracks and Records. Having known this and with the addition of the Marantz CD Players, do you recommend any other changes to the setup you suggested above.

One additional point of concern on your “One Catch” part given that you wrote and I quote “playing the exact same Blu-ray, your main home theater speakers will also drop down to 2-channel stereo. But since your plan is to turn the speaker feed off anyway” How do I turn off the speaker feed and I just to simplify things for myself. given that 70% of the time I spend watching movies and TV, thus all speakers should be performing normally. I solely use the Panasonic DP-UB9000E player for 4K movie watching and never for music, while the Denon DBT-3313UDC for SACD and now soon arriving Marantz CD Player CD-6007 for Music CD playing. Any changes to the above recommended setup .

Finally, I’ll be using the ifi Zen Can 3 with my Sennheiser HD 800s for night listening or watching movies to avoid disturbing the Landlord.

Again many thanks for you time. I really appreciate it.