DAC question - please help...


   Just wondering if I plug in my stereo to the headphone out of a DAC, if the sound would suffer as compared to RCA outs...

Thanks in advance!

Stay safe everyone with goggles to protect eyes as well...
gonglee3
You don’t say what kind of DAC you have or Stereo... And if it has a Headphone Output, my guess is there is a Preamp and Amp Stage designed into the DAC to drive Headphones... Plugging the Headphone Output into your Stereo Input would place and additional Preamp and Amp Stage in front of your Stereos own Preamp and Power Amp Stages causing a Gain Structure miss match... Added Distortion, Noise and possible Clipping would be the result...  I am also guessing that the DAC has a Volume Control when using Headphones...  That additional Volume Control, one on the DAC and one on the Stereo, will also add Noise...
You could use one of these mini jack to rca cables and do it but doesn’t your Dac have regular analog outputs? They will sound a lot better than this will.
https://www.officedepot.com/a/products/249687/C2G-6in-Value-Series-One-35mm/?cm_mmc=PLA-_-Bing-_-Net...