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Pass Labs Aleph Question - balanced vs unbalanced?


I have a Pass Labs Aleph 5. I also have a Supratek Chardonnay Pre-Amp with balanced and unbalanced out. Do people think the Pass Amps sound better through balanced vs unbalanced? I understood that they were truly engineered to run balanced for best sound quality, but am not sure.

I am having a problem with balanced operation (that I don't want to mention here so I don't complicate my question), so I'm trying to see if its worth figuring the other problem out or just sticking with unbalanced.
lightminer
rwwear
2,850 posts
 
I don't necessarily think balanced sounds better but there is less chance of hum.
ghostrider45
449 posts
 
The Alephs are a single ended design, so the balanced signal must be converted to single ended before driving the power stage. I use a pair of aleph 1.2 monos and have run them both single ended and balanced. They sound terrific either way, and I can't say that balanced is any better.
thomasheisig
568 posts
 
I tried both ways with my Aleph 0 monos and the XLR input does not sound better. I agree with Ghostrider45.
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