Single Ended DAC vs Dual Differential XLR DAC

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

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.

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.

Thanks for your replies!

@lordmelton , I'm not referring to dual mono. The Single Ended RCA DAC I'm considering is the MHDT Pagoda ( http://www.mhdtlab.com/Pagoda.htm ) and the dual differential XLR DAC is its brother MHDT Balanced Pagoda ( http://www.mhdtlab.com/Pagoda%20balanced.htm ).

The Balanced Pagoda simply has 2x PCM1704 DAC's per channel in order to obtain the negative and positive portions of the XLR signal while the unbalanced Pagoda simply has 1x PCM1704 per channel for just the positive signal.

Now that I'm playing with an open hand...do you think the Balanced Pagoda to be superior to the Pagoda? Or the dual DAC for the negative and positive portions of the XLR signal could decrease signal accuracy? I think about tolerances that make a chip never identical to another leading to a slightly "smeared" signal.

It's the old story of single ended RCA considered simpler and someway better than XLR by someone while others say exactly the opposite.

Eventually, I own an RCA Pagoda, should I take a Balanced Pagoda with no chance to test it before buying?

Thank you for your help!

Gianluca