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post #31 of 32

10/28/11 at 6:35pm

Thread Starter

385 Posts. Joined 1/2011
Location: Markham, Ontario, Canada
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I just have a question relating back to the original topic. The salesman at the audio store I visited said that by going balanced in the entire system I will decrease the noise level by 6db that seem's like quite a bit of noise, is there any truth to that?

post #32 of 32

10/28/11 at 6:53pm

2,603 Posts. Joined 12/2009
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Quote:

Originally Posted by Swatcsi

Not that I'm aware of, no. The difference between balanced and single ended should be entirely down to input impedance, output impedance, and voltage. For example: "The maximum gain into 100k ohms was very slightly smaller than specified, at 9.8dB (balanced and unbalanced inputs to balanced output) and 3.8dB (unbalanced input to unbalanced output). Both balanced and unbalanced inputs preserved absolute polarity, the balanced XLR jacks being wired with pin 2 hot. At all frequencies, the input impedance was to specification at 20k ohms per phase—ie, 40k ohms balanced and 20k ohms unbalanced. The output impedance was 62 ohms balanced and 31 ohms unbalanced (including 6' of interconnect)."

Using balanced over single-ended should not effect channel separation, THD, or signal/noise in any way. The one area where balanced could have a positive impact is with older balanced R-2R DACs with at least four DAC chips. When you use these DACs in balanced mode, all of the DACs are used. In single ended, half are not used. This is not true of "quasi-balanced" DACs, basically DACs with unbalanced topology that use a phase splitter so that balanced cabling can be used. The EAD and Dodson DACs worked that way. I don't think it makes a difference on modern delta sigma DACs.