xlr vs rca

With the large amount of excellent SE gear it is hard to argue that balanced is inherently better in a home environment even though those that make it and use it would disagree.

SE gear is cheaper so it must be better - the savings can be used towards gold plated RCA connectors and ground loops are rare in the home... ;-) LOL

Herman, I guess I should have phrased my question differently. I am aware of the Atma-sphere dual differential topology and how it works; I am just not aware of any other way to do it with tubes. Perhaps I should have asked how can you do it differently with tubes, and who (what company) uses other than a differential topology to achieve true balanced operation with tubes? Also, in any "balanced" design, an early stage, have to split the signal into positive and negative halves? It seems to me that at least the phase-splitting step is easiest to achieve with a differential topology. Downstream from the phase splitting, I get that additional differential topologies may not be necessary. Sorry that this is somewhat OT, but it's interesting, at least to me.

Lewn,

Also, in any "balanced" design, an early stage, have to split the signal into positive and negative halves?

A phono cartridge can output a differential signal and most if not all modern DAC chips have differential outputs so no split is needed. It can start out that way.

I am just not aware of any other way to do it with tubes

you simply build 2 amplifiers in one chassis like stated earlier and one amplifies the + signal and one amplifies the minus. I don't know how all of the balanced manufacturers approach the problem but you can certainly do it that way. I did look through BAT's website and they make no mention of differential circuits. Perhaps they use them but don't talk about it?

Shadorne,

I'm afraid I don't follow. The balanced builders are just as likely to use gold plated connectors as the SE crowd. As for ground loops, take a look at my system. The phono is balanced into the pro box but it is converted to SE by transformers at the output of that box and is SE from then on. I run 107dB efficient horns with SET tube amps and even with the phono turned up I have to my ear up near the speakers to hear any kind of noise. No hum, no ground loops and I am biamping.

Thank you all very much. I have learned a great deal from studying all of the input I have been given.

No hum, no ground loops and I am biamping.

Ground loops do not always show up as hum with volume turned way up with no music playing (of course really bad ground loops do). The insidious kind is when a power supply leakage affects ground on a device which adds modulated noise on your cabling as a function of power demands. The way to reduce this is to go balanced (so that the ground loop is induced equally in both positive and negative signals). You really can't detect this kind of insidious effect other than to observe the improved clarity of going to a properly balanced setup where grounds from different components are much less likely to get to your signal. The effect can of course be small when comparing good equipment that is well matched... nevertheless, several DB in better noise floor can usually be expected with XLR.