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Balanced DAC — XLR or SE ouputs?

I'm at a crossroads. I am going to switch out my amp, but I'm worried about the whole balanced-thing.

I have the following:
- Schiit Gungnir Multibit DAC
- Zu Omen speakers

Presently I'm using the balanced outputs of the DAC into a balanced amp (Schiit Ragnarok). The SE outputs sound good, but the XLRs better. 

What I'm considering is
1) Schiit Freya pre-amp + Schiit Aegir — allows both XLR-input and monoblocks in the future
2) Elekit TU-8600S kit — a 300b amp with only 1 SE-input

I read rave reviews about both. The Elekit seems to be in a much higher league sound quality wise, but also seems much more limited. I've even read people here use the Freya as a preamp for the Elekit amp. In short I'm given the impression that the Elekit is an amazing deal if you can bother building it.

What path would you go down?
Also, can you "keep the quality of the balanced outputs" if you use the elekit with a preamp? 
128x128eyrepm
tweak1
3,642 posts
 
Just because a component has XLRs does not mean it is true balanced, so buyer beware (or aware).


True balanced is true high-end, and will reward you, if you have quality XLR cables. I have had many different mfgs XLR cables over the decades, none provided better bang for the buck then Wire World


hth
three_easy_payments's avatar
three_easy_payments
2,097 posts
 
I believe the Schiit Gungnir Multibit DAC XLR outputs are true balanced. With this said, in some cases as @tweak1 points out the quality of the cabling can make a big difference - in fact I recently experimented with a "decent" XLR vs a "fantastic SE" between my DAC and linestage. I compared the Cardas Clear Light XLR vs the Tellurium Q Black Diamond SE and the TQ won out hands down. While the TQ gave up a few dB gain the sound was richly organic, much more detailed, and presented a bigger soundstage than the Cardas.

I think people obsess over spending extra money sometimes for XLR connections when they actually could get better sonic gains for less incremental cost by going with better SE ICs.
tweak1
3,642 posts
 
3 easy p's


that is not true when one’s kit is true balanced, but has rcas for convenience, as is often the case with unbalanced components that provide XLRs as a ’convenience’

Charlatans pretending to be hi-end audio.


SE, properly called unbalanced components using RCA connectors goes back to the earliest days of hifi, but the game changed decades ago. The lame component designers never embraced it, and the buyers were (and still are mostly ignorant).


There is no denying that true balanced kit trounces unbalanced IF/WHEN properly designed components AND quality XLR cabling is used
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