"Every differential amplifier stage is true-balanced by default on both the input and output of the topology."
In your dreams. Most good balanced output stages are either tube or discrete, so there are several issues that make them imperfect:
1) DC offset
2) common-mode noise
3) difference in amplitude between + and - signals (impossible to make these identical with active circuits)
4) isolation of ground between DAC and amps
A good transformer solves all of these and makes the amps sound better in the process.
"Lastly, digital volume attenuation is hardly "new." Yes, there are methods of accomplishing this with technically no distortion. To me it's all unnecessary and yet another way to have your bitstream modified via DSP and I have no interest in that."
You are not getting it. This is not DSP. This is not software. This is not even a digital chip somewhere in the signal path. This is something entirely different. This is control of the D/A reference voltage. No modification to the digital stream. Nothing else like it.
Steve N.
Empirical Audio
In your dreams. Most good balanced output stages are either tube or discrete, so there are several issues that make them imperfect:
1) DC offset
2) common-mode noise
3) difference in amplitude between + and - signals (impossible to make these identical with active circuits)
4) isolation of ground between DAC and amps
A good transformer solves all of these and makes the amps sound better in the process.
"Lastly, digital volume attenuation is hardly "new." Yes, there are methods of accomplishing this with technically no distortion. To me it's all unnecessary and yet another way to have your bitstream modified via DSP and I have no interest in that."
You are not getting it. This is not DSP. This is not software. This is not even a digital chip somewhere in the signal path. This is something entirely different. This is control of the D/A reference voltage. No modification to the digital stream. Nothing else like it.
Steve N.
Empirical Audio