.
The highly respected Aetshetix IO converts balanced to single ended at the input and then back to balanced after the equalization. I don't recall if it just grounds one leg or does some other conversion like a diff amp to SE but it is not balanced all the way through.
In fact for a phono stage it kind of makes sense as you don't have to spend the money to build 2 perfectly balanced RIAA equalization networks for each channel.
The Pass Xono uses number 3, SE inputs but creates an inverted output at the end of the chain to create a balanced output. It is not really "fake" in that it doesn't have the illusion of balanced in with XLR jacks, it has RCA inputs.
.
The highly respected Aetshetix IO converts balanced to single ended at the input and then back to balanced after the equalization. I don't recall if it just grounds one leg or does some other conversion like a diff amp to SE but it is not balanced all the way through.
In fact for a phono stage it kind of makes sense as you don't have to spend the money to build 2 perfectly balanced RIAA equalization networks for each channel.
The Pass Xono uses number 3, SE inputs but creates an inverted output at the end of the chain to create a balanced output. It is not really "fake" in that it doesn't have the illusion of balanced in with XLR jacks, it has RCA inputs.
.
