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Single Ended DAC vs Dual Differential XLR DAC

Hi,

 

will a dual differential XLR DAC (with i.e. 2x Left DAC chips + 2x Right DAC chips) always sound better than a Single Ended DAC (with i.e. 1x Left DAC chip + 1x Right DAC chip) assuming that they have the same DAC chip model and same board design (except the dual circuitry of the XLR version)?

 

The XLR has twice the output voltage, but will pure audio quality be certainly superior to the Single Ended version?

 

Thanks for your opinion!

 

Gianluca

gkg2k
jjss49's avatar
jjss49
6,612 posts
 

short answer is 'not always', or 'it depends'

in a theoretical world all other things other than the variable you highlight (dual opposed dac chips vs single) are equal

in the real world they are never equal

abraxalito
93 posts
 

GIven twice the number of DAC chips in the dual differential DAC then the likelihood is it will sound better because the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) will be higher than with a single DAC per channel. How much better though is dependent on the implementation details.

lordmelton's avatar
lordmelton
1,070 posts
 

Basically what ^^^^ they said.

I don't know if you're talking about single ended (RCA) or XLR or a dual mono dac as opposed to a shared signal path and transformer.

RCA vs XLR is never certain XLR on paper should sound better but that is not always the case. Very cable dependent too.

Dual mono is usually but not always superior it's always better to listen and decide for yourself.

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