Balanced vs RCA preamps

atmasphere

AES48 is an industry standard but you'd have to check with them to see. As far as I can tell, a good number of them don't know what AES48 is.

It cannot possibly be a "standard" ("something established by authority, custom, or general consent as a model or example") yet at the same time not commonly accepted. Even your website admits that few home audio manufacturers observe this "standard." ("still one of the very few preamps to support the balanced standard (AES48)"

You mistake my reason for being active on threads where balanced line is discussed.

I don't think so. While you provide information about balanced circuits, you are also promoting your patented and trademarked Balanced Differential Design® components. That's fine, of course, but there's no reason to be coy about it. After all, you frequently argue that only balanced designs that respect AES 48 are "proper."

If you want a speaker to work right you have to pay attention to Thiel Small parameters, for a USB cable you support the USB specs, for balanced line its AES48.

No, balanced lines can work quite nicely and still reject AES48. You're welcome to listen to my mostly-ARC system and judge for yourself, @atmasphere.

It cannot possibly be a "standard" ("something established by authority, custom, or general consent as a model or example") yet at the same time not commonly accepted.

@cleeds   That's the thing: it is commonly accepted (would you like an industry list?); not sure if high end audio designers chose to ignore it or are simply ignorant of it.

Just so we're clear, other than our own, I've never put that trademark on any website. As far as I know, that sort of thing might be considered a violation of forum rules. 

If you want a speaker to work right you have to pay attention to Thiel Small parameters, for a USB cable you support the USB specs, for balanced line its AES48.

No, balanced lines can work quite nicely and still reject AES48. You're welcome to listen to my mostly-ARC system and judge for yourself, @atmasphere.

Thanks!. Just to be clear though, I never said or implied that if you don't support AES48 that it won't sound 'quite nicely'. What I did say was

if AES48 is not supported, then you loose a lot of the benefit that balanced line operation offers: immunity to ground loops and reduced or non-existent cable coloration/interaction issues (this being the 'cable makes a difference' phenomena).

My DAC at home sounds 'quite nicely' but it doesn't support AES48. So I keep its cables short to minimize cable colorations.

atmasphere

That's the thing: it is commonly accepted (would you like an industry list?)

It's a red herring, really and you've already acknowledged that AES48 is not commonly accepted in home audio. You describe your MP-1 preamp as "featuring Balanced Differential Design®" and state it's "still one of the very few preamps to support the balanced standard (AES48)." You then go on to insist that only AES48-compliant designs are "proper" balanced designs.

So yes, you're here to promote your products, Ralph, and that's fine. You've earned the trademark and multiple patents and you've earned the right to tout them. But when you insist that you have found The One True Way, and that competing balanced designs aren't "proper," it warrants a reminder that with most things in life, there's almost always more than one way to accomplish a task. And that is certainly true in high-end audio.

It’s a red herring, really and you’ve already acknowledged that AES48 is not commonly accepted in home audio. You describe your MP-1 preamp as "featuring Balanced Differential Design®" and state it’s "still one of the very few preamps to support the balanced standard (AES48)." You then go on to insist that only AES48-compliant designs are "proper" balanced designs.

@cleeds How is that a red herring?? The topic of this thread is "Balanced vs RCA preamps" so my comments about balanced operation are relevant.

I do describe the MP-1 and the MP-3 in that manner. I’ve described other high end preamps in that manner too. 

The emphasis added bit is false.

Nor am I claiming they are The One True Way (in fact listed a couple of other ways including links in prior posts which you seem to be ignoring) nor did I say any competing balanced line product isn’t ’proper’. Please stop trying to put words in my mouth; when you do so you commit a logical fallacy called a Strawman; logical fallicies are false by definition...

Regarding the use of ’proper’ I was talking about driving a balanced line ’properly’. I didn’t say anything about some balanced line product not being proper. Do you get the distinction??

Again, for like the 4th time already(!), this is what I claim:

if AES48 is not supported, then you loose a lot of the benefit that balanced line operation offers: immunity to ground loops and reduced or non-existent cable coloration/interaction issues (this being the ’cable makes a difference’ phenomena).

Nowhere in that is any comment about anyone’s particular balanced preamp or the like. Its a simple statement about balanced lines themselves.

One only has to open up their equipment in order to determine if true balanced, mirrored circuit path, power supplies,power and output transformers, my Coincident Statement even has dual transformer volume control. Also true balanced pre's used with true balanced sources such as dacs may offer even greater beneifits, pseudo XLR inputs on pre may in fact be inferior to single ended inputs such that using the superior balanced outputs on dac may be compromised.