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Balanced or Unbalanced?

Hi-end should be about as few compromises as one's budget will allow.

It's a shame (or a conspiracy) that hi-end mags do not educate us on the basics, such as unbalanced circuit designs vs differentially balanced designs and XLR connectors/connections vs XLR connectors/connections and their relative impact on music playback. Why do I mention "conspiracy"? Magazines seem reluctant to bite the hand that feeds them- the majority of manufacturers are still in the dark ages selling unbalanced gear. Why? It seems you can't teach an old dog new tricks.

Hi-end roots are based in unbalanced designs. When the few differentially balanced designs (XLR) first appeared on the market, they were too expensive for most of us. Today, several manufacturers offer XLR designs that are competitively priced with unbalanced designs.

Think about it, sharing the L/R signal on circuit boards and through parts cannot be a good thing. Adding insult to injury is the RCA connector. A system is only as good as it's weakest link and this is the RCA connection. In response, several manufacturers have improved the RCA connector, but to what ultimate result? You can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig.

Reviewers (and I blame this on editors) typically allow balanced components to be reviewed within the confines of an unbalanced system. See The Absolute Sound August issue review of the Raysonic 168. Consequently, we are not informed on the components' ultimate sonic value.

If you are on a quest for best sound, begin to replace your RCA based components with differentially balanced. Most will accommodate RCAs or just buy RCA/XLR adapters until you fully transition.
tweak1
samhar
1,048 posts
 
Hi Shadorne I don't know enough to disagree with you I only know what I heard, also there was an experienced audiophile with me at the time and he was more than a little surprised at the changes in fact he was bummed he had to run S/E from his Ref 3 to his VS-110 after hearing the improvement in my system. The biggest change was from the CD3 MKll to Calypso. I just bought the CDP from Audphile1 he strongly advised using bal I/C saying the unit sounded better bal. I was told the same thing about the Calypso by an audiophile whose experience I respect. Is it possible these two units that are bal designs and individually improve with the use of bal I/C improve even more together? I kept the sound level at 74 db with S/E Sky and Bal Sky so we were very surprised how much better the bal sounded we both looked at each other in disbelief asking are you hearing what I'm hearing!! I'll A-B tomorrow to recheck, I don't have time today as we're off to the USC-OSU game soon!!! Fight On!!!!!

musicnoise
377 posts
 
The principle advantage to using balanced vs unbalanced topology is that unwanted interference is presented common mode and subtacted out. So, if you have noticable interference, the balanced approach should show significant improvement over the unbalanced . If you do not have any such problems then you should not see a difference. I personally use a balanced approach because it is available in my gear and ideally a better setup. However, I have also tried the unbalanced connections. I heard no difference whatsoever. Of course I don't have noise problems. If its available in your gear - I would use it. If it isn't and you have no problems with noise, I would not change anything. A lot of options are out there for a wide variety of problems that can be encountered in audio equipment. However, I have never seen a point in preemptively addressing problems that do not exist. Sometimes upgrading is nonsensical. A friend recently asked my opinion on going to an amp that was "quad balanced" over another amp because of a lower spec'd snr. The snr of his current amp is spec'd at 112 db and he was looking at going to an amp that spec'd at 124 db (there were other advantages to going to the second amp). And he was happy with his current amp. My suggestion was that the only difference would be on paper. Both specs are so good that it just would do nothing but confer bragging rights. Same thing here - if you don't have noise problems, I see no reason to change what you have.
vett93
205 posts
 
I understand the benefit of reduced noise floor from balanced systems. My system is also more dynamic when I configure it as fully balanced.

However, the gains cannot be 100% identical between the two sets of amplification. Won't that have any impact on the sound?
samhar
1,048 posts
 
Shadorne you had it right it was a noise problem!!!! There was "glare" with piano in the higher notes, I thought the CD's were poor quality or that was just how "most" CD's were going to sound, depressing!! I used "The Ray Brown Trio Live At The LOA Summer Wind" for the A-B ing.
For an unrelated reason I bought a used set(4) of AQ Sorbogel Big Feet and put them under the Calypso just to hear what would happen. The "fuzz" at the peak of the notes disappeared, the notes were clean/clear!! Today I A-B'ed the Bal and the S/E and they were extremely close, only a very slight difference in what appeared to be warmth.
Next I placed isolation cones under the CD3, they cut-out a tad more "fuzz" and tightened everything up!!! At this point I puy an 1 1/2" maple board under the amp to further reduce vibrations. Now the Bal and S/E were even closer, a great lesson in the degradation of sound by vibrations. Bal cable was left in from the pre to the amp during the elaluation.
The Calypso must be extra sensitive to vibrations the change was so dramatic
UH OH here I go again!!
Vett93 I didn't mean to imply the signal had another 6db of gain just that it became bassier.
Thanks for dealing with something you easily could have blown off, the sharing of everyone's reactions/thoughts kept me thinking about the cables and the importance of dampening vibrations for clearer sound!!!!
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shadorne
7,467 posts
 
For an unrelated reason I bought a used set(4) of AQ Sorbogel Big Feet and put them under the Calypso just to hear what would happen. The "fuzz" at the peak of the notes disappeared, the notes were clean/clear!!

I keep saying this on many threads. Tubes are microphonic! They really ought to be kept in a separate room/area and away from the noise in the listening room. This is what Pink Floyd does and surely we can respect them for knowing what should be done soundwise to get the most from the great sound of tubes.

It is entirely possible (in your previous observations) that the different XLR cables changed the way the components resonated with the sound in the air in your room or transmitted from your speakers to the floor and up your component stand.

A much heavier flexible XLR cable (compared to RCA) might logically have a dampening effect in much the same way as if you place your hand on something. However, now that you have resolved most vibration issues then the difference from RCA to XLR has become far more subtle - as it should when everytyhing is working properly.
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