Help! My preamp/DAC is unable to drive my poweramp


My Bricasti M12 is unable to drive my Nagra 300p amp. Even at max volume of +8dB, the loudness in the room barely reaches 85dB.
Would love some advice from the audio gurus before I give up on my Bricasti M12.

My speakers are Devore O96 which can be easily driven by 8W SET amps, leave alone a 20W Push pull amp like Nagra 300p.

It has something to do with gain of the preamp. Impedance matching seems to be fine.

Bricasti m12 preamp/DAC specs:

Balanced Analog Outputs Connectors: XLR balanced (pin 2 hot) Impedance: 40 ohm Output: @ full scale ( +8db front panel )+16.5 dbm (5.2V RMS) D/A Conversion: PCM 24 bit delta sigma 8x oversampling, DSD direct 1 bit Frequency Response @44.1k: 10 hz- 20 kHz +0dB, -.2 dB Dynamic Range: >120dB A-Weighted THD+N @ 1k: .0008% @ 0dBfs / .0004% @-30dbfs
Unbalanced Analog Outputs Connectors: RCA Impedance: 40 ohm Output level: Full scale ( +8db front panel ) = +10.7 dbm (2.6 V RMS) D/A Conversion: PCM 24 bit delta sigma 8x oversampling, DSD direct 1 bit Frequency Response @ 44.1k: 10 hz- 20 kHz -.2 dB Dynamic Range: >120dB A-Weighted THD+N @ 1k: .0008% @ 0dbfs / .0004% @-30dbfs

Nagra 300P specs:


2 x 20 watts RMS stereo into 4, 8 and 16 Ω
14 Hz at 56 kHz, +0/-3 dB
> 70 dB
Typically 105 dB (ASA-A weighted)
0.8% @ 20 W
> 48 kΩ
«Soft start» circuit
Incorrect mains voltage (115V or 230V) Output transformer removed
Error in tube anode current <15mA or >180mA 120 W continuous, <1 W stand-by
100, 115, 230 V ± 10%, 50-60 Hz




essrand
What is the gain in db's of the Nagra and it's input impedance? You most likely need an active preamp to provide more gain! 

What I found on the web.
Your Bricasti xlr is 40ohm output impedance with 5.2v output.
Your Nagra xlr is 47kohm input impedance at 2v in for full output.
It seems there should be no problem with the Bricasti driving the Nagra.with xlr connection 

But is seems the rca from the Briscati is only 1.2v out, and I can't find what the Nagra rca sensitivity is.

Cheers George
Absolutely no reason the M12 can't drive your amplifier to full output.  You should call Bricasti and they will be able to sort it out for you.  Fantastic people and service.  
This got resolved. The rca couldn’t drive the amp but the xlr output was able to drive as George suggested.
Yeah that’s what it looked like to me, weird that Bricasti would kill the rca output like that, as that 1.2v doesn’t meet RedBook digital standard.
Explains why many mistakenly say the balanced sound better, just that there’s not enough volts from the rca.
Be interesting to see which actually sounds better into an amp that say has less than <1v input sensitivity, so the rca isn’t hobbled then.

Just have to use xlr’s from now on.

Cheers George