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Question on Balanced vs Single Ended input on a Stax SRM-006t amp

post #1 of 2
9/15/10 at 7:42am
Thread Starter 

I just bought a Stax 4040II system and the amp has inputs for both SE and Balanced connections.  I'm using a Wadia 581iSE CD player and the SE outputs go to my preamp with the preamp tape outputs feeding the Stax amp. This requires me to turn on the preamp even if I'm listening to headphones.

 

I would like to connect the balanced outputs directly to the Stax amp so that I don't need to turn on the preamp if I'm using headphones.  My questions are; 1) would the balanced inputs provide better sound quality over the SE inputs and 2)the Wadia balanced ouptuts use the standard USA pin configuration of 1-Ground, 2- Hot(+), 3-Cold(-) while the Stax input is 1-Ground, 2-Cold(-) and 3-Hot(+), is there a way to either use an adapter or change the configuration on the Stax unit.   It's a USA unit so I'm perplexed wy they don't use the USA standard.

 

Thanks for the help

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post #2 of 2
9/15/10 at 9:13am

Whether the XLR is superior to RCA depends entirely on the source, they are both handled equally in the amp. 

 

Why the Stax amps are wired like that is quite simple, that is the correct way of wiring up a XLR connector and the US setup isn't according to spec.  In practice this doesn't matter a whole lot though, and this is very easy to fix both inside the amp and with cables. 

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