Single Ended DAC vs Dual Differential XLR DAC

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

Member Teajay did a review of the balanced Pagoda for Stereo Times that would provide some valuable insights for you.  Best of luck. 

@gkg2k Hi Gianluca I feel your pain not being able to demo gear, however as I see it the single ended dac is $1.5k and the balanced $2.5k. I would definitely go for the single ended and spend the extra $1k on good cables but DEMO the cables first, don't just buy them because they are expensive.

Otherwise loads of Chinese R2R DACs available around $2-3k.

Hope this helps. 

Great choice,  here's some info to help you decide which you need.

Pagoda Top Dac

audiosciencereview.com is full of retards that can barely scrape 50 bucks together for a headphone amp. Total wankers that just measure the resistance of cables. I've said enough.