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Why aren't all high end headphones balanced?

post #1 of 9
12/26/11 at 1:24pm
Thread Starter 

I'm a little confused as to why all high end headphones aren't balanced?

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post #2 of 9
12/26/11 at 1:33pm
Because not everybody wants that and balanced amps are still a minority
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post #3 of 9
12/26/11 at 1:43pm
Because the relatively short cable lengths involved in headphone listening don't necessitate balanced audio and don't justify the increased manufacturing cost.
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post #4 of 9
12/26/11 at 2:26pm
Ahh but balancing headphones are not the same as balanced signal cables. Balancing a headphone is primarily done for 2 reasons: To get rid of the common ground and to double the voltage swing. The flip side is that it requires twice as many amps as single ended so tend nearly double the price
Edited by nc8000 - 12/26/11 at 2:28pm
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post #5 of 9
12/27/11 at 10:12am
Quote:
Originally Posted by nc8000 View Post

Ahh but balancing headphones are not the same as balanced signal cables. Balancing a headphone is primarily done for 2 reasons: To get rid of the common ground and to double the voltage swing. The flip side is that it requires twice as many amps as single ended so tend nearly double the price


that's a really good explanation, I was always wondering some of the facts of a balanced amp. Thank you !

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post #6 of 9
12/27/11 at 10:15am

Also, where is the magical threshold between every day headphones and high end models? For some people $200 or above would be pretty high end but for others maybe $2000 and up would be high end.

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post #7 of 9
12/27/11 at 12:26pm

Because all headamps have single ended out but only a few have balanced. It is also still debatable if balanced makes a difference.

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post #8 of 9
12/27/11 at 1:09pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Allforheather View Post



that's a really good explanation, I was always wondering some of the facts of a balanced amp. Thank you !



No it's not. You can design an unbalanced amp to swing just as much V unbalanced and star the ground at the jack for optimum earthing. Many (most?) unbalanced phones already run seperate grounds to the jack. Balanced amps also don't inherently sound better. It just depends on the individual amp.

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post #9 of 9
12/27/11 at 1:59pm
I have no idea if you can but I have not seen a single ended amp that swings the same V as some balanced amps do. The thing about star ground I don't know what mean but since there are only 3 signals the ground must still be shared at some point. But I do agree that just because an amp is balanced it does not necesarily sound better and Meyer with his active ground does seem to get very close to the same benefit that the total elimination of common ground in balanced amps have. Also not all headphones respond to balancing in the same way so you cant automatically say that a given headphone will sound better balanced
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