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Is balanced necessarily better?

Assuming fully balanced equipment that also offers single ended connections, and no RFI problems, is the use of balanced interconnects necessarily the better way to go? My forum search indicates some who say balanced is better because the connectors are inherently better and because of noise cancelling properties associated with the signal flowing in both directions; and others who say for reasonably short runs and no interference problems that rca/single-ended connections sound better in many cases, maybe because the signal has less circuitry to traverse. This has come up for me because I am considering different preamp alternatives, and if I decide not to stay with a fully balanced system, I have more choices. To give things a try I substituted some old AudioTruth rca cables for my Luminous Sychestra Sig balanced cables. Except for the 6db loss in output, I have initially found the rca cables to sound a little smoother, with more rounded images, a little plumper bass, and what initially sounds like a more "musical" presentation. The system is a Muse Model 10 source/Muse Model 3 Sig pre/McCormack DNA 500/Aerial 9's. BTW, Steve McCormack told me the DNA 500 sees the signal the same way whether balanced or single-ended, and didn't seem to think the amp would sound significantly different either way. Therefore, even though many manufacturers are now offering more balanced equipment, especially at the upper end, others such as CJ continue to make only single-ended equipment. What are do you guys think, is balanced necessarily better?
mitch2
mitch2 OP
3,756 posts
 
Another thought I have heard regards phase effects, and the inability of some balanced cable makers to appropriately design cables to resist phase shift, which might be one reason some believe single-ended sounds better for home audio. I heard one of the successes of using bybees is to correct phase shift problems. Any truth to any of that?
eldartford
4,262 posts
 
Nsgarch...Twice the signal and twice the noise. The only thing that matters is the signal-to-noise ratio, and this will be exactly the same for single ended or complementary circuitry, assuming the inverted signal circuit path performs the same as the inphase path.

The so called "extra" circuit needed to drive a complementary amplifier from a single ended input is in many cases an illusion. The amplifier usually includes a buffer stage at the input. With balanced input this buffer is the same (inverting or non-inverting)for both sides of the signal.
If you want to use an unbalanced input, one buffer is wired to be inverting and the other non-inverting. No extra circuitry is required.
bigtee
803 posts
 
McCormack uses a transformer (Jensen I believe) to perform this task in his upgrades. You can read about it on his sight. That is an extra conmponent. The Sony SCD-1 used a circuit to derive balanced and it didn't sound as good as SE. As I said, I've been messing around with this stuff and some sound better balanced, some worse and some sound better SE. There ways to implement this and it's not all about noise in all cases. Some implementations degrade the signal. All you have to do is listen for yourself.
serus
93 posts
 
Eldartford... "Twice the signal and twice the noise" is not a correct description of a balanced differential input circuit. Noise adds up when uncorrelated, but the circuit will reject supply noise and RF pickup better than the single-ended circuit.
In addition, the differential circuit cancels out even harmonics, for a lower measured distortion.
All said and done, the single-ended circuit is inherently simpler and - in my opinion - can provide the ultimate sound purity. If noise levels are acceptable (i.e. close to non-existent) then I much prefer the SE amplification. To me, it is the realization of "as simple as possible, but not simpler..."
eldartford
4,262 posts
 
Serus..."Twice the signal and twice the noise" is more accurate than "Twice the signal (period)" which is the common misconception that I wanted to correct. Complementary circuitry will reject common mode noise on the signal and distortion, for example power supply ripple, assuming that the (+) and (-) rails of the power supply have the same noise.
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