Modern amplifiers for several years, including some that are portable, are easily capable of driving vast majority of headphones. Like happening with several others aspects of audio, the debate of balanced vs unbalanced is very more often a case of snake oil.

The key parts there are slew rate and lack of shared ground. Basically a balanced amp can be twice as fast as a single ended amp when both use the same transistors. On less efficient headphones the voltage swing needs to be higher so balanced can offer benefits there. If you have a single...

...slew rate (how quickly the amp responds to input signals), lower noise, and reduced crosstalk due to the elimination of the shared audio ground between the left and right channels. But you’re highly unlikely to notice much improvement in listening. Actually, the only real tangible benefit...

Yup, we'll bite that bullet, in order to add the inline mic, the 3.5 is pretty dumb as we have to ground the mic... Please use the 4.4 balanced output.

I’m happy to have "recommended" it to you, especially considering that you like it so much! I really think it’s an amazing cable, particularly given its price. TRN is extremely fast on that front. Yesterday, they dispatched my Medusa in a matter of minutes after I ordered it. Thank you for...

...experience. In other words, there is no right or wrong, try yourself what suits you best. Jump around with settings or find your "lazy" middle ground and leave it as it is. Me for example, with my equipment and preferences, I mostly use fast roll off linear phase, the standard, basic FIR...

...to any perceived hum? As described before, on my ZMFs (VC + BC), sadly, I'm far from a "black" noise floor, and instead get a discernable "ground hum" which seems to be treatable with the right set of cables (AC and HP cables). Silver makes it worse, copper makes it less. Interconnects (DAC...

@rickmcinnis Here are the different solderless connectors I recommend to use for Ground cable and ground box applications. All can be purchased very inexpensively from Aliexpress and perform well beyond their price points. For ground box use case, IMHO sound better than the Furutech...

...and that is usually that the design is in fact balanced in that it uses a positive and a negative per channel not just positives and a common ground. It is louder because there are twice as many amplifiers, two per channel not just one. The whole balanced thing is all but meaningless in IEM...

Not to derail but I’m currently in San Diego and my car journey started with a 1971 VW Bug. Then had several Buses including a rare kombi that was hard top but with bed and table, VW Fastback and finally The VW Thing. And what was nice with the VW is you could tinker with it and mod it. So...

1st rabbit to 2nd rabbit: "What do these people have against rabbit holes, anyway?"

...If you like the all-in-one Naim, cool, but if you like the journey than The Source AV may be worth the trip. By the way, its my old stopping ground when I lived in San Diego. Love that place. Welcome to the Journey :) P.S. If you do stick with the Naim chain, let me know. I have a Naim...

Thanks. It's not giving me my answer but I may try to find when the MOD was done if the older buyer answer me ...

...latest version of the mod involves on the NPAudio web site: NPAudio WM1A/Z EXPMv5 (Extreme Performance Mod v5) Double thickness shielding / grounding over the amplifier section. (Stock WM1A/Z is plastic) 3.5mm Single Ended cables upgraded with Neotech 7N OCC solid copper cable. Neotech 7N...

...gain. However, the online manual (August 2023) is correct. On my unit I can hear minor hiss if I turn on the +12db the right channel. Not a ground issue, I checked disconnectioning the source using the both ground lift jumper position. Not really a problem for me since I can't really listen...

...friends when we originally got/built these cables of mine? Because you are literally describing what I built (Using Stratus Computer chassis ground cable… lots of strands, flexible, white sheath… 2guage… right down to the pure copper Edison Price binding post replacement on my Apogees… See...

...thick and detailed. I'm a big fan of NOT balancing out the sound of my headphones with components that would bring it to a more of a middle ground. What I like is finding components that help support and strengthen the nature of the sound of a pair of headphones. What I personally would...

Nano Liquid on non-gas tight connections also. Like RJ45, USB, etc. The XLR solderless connectors I recommend will accommodate most of the 14ga. wire from the ground cable. Can provide link for them later if you like.

...plan on using the Nano fluid wherever there is an assumed gas-tight connection in the system. I can see the value of 14 gauge wire for the ground box wire just wanted to be sure I had not misunderstood. For those who do have to incorporate this into their cable I think it could be...

...Confused sound stage - epically so. The best wire in ABX (not level matched) we all agreed was an aluminum 2 ga mini computer cable ground wire that had at least 250 strands and was super flexible in a simple white plastic sheath - with pure copper lugs of the type in your pic - this was...

Do you get it from headphones as well ?

One or two dedicated customer service professionals wouldn't have cost much and could well have made a world of difference.

Paradoxically I think B&W is in the middle ground of too big to have truly personalized customer service setup like you describe with Buchardt but too big to have an entire team so they could dedicate a person like you are asking.

...just needed to Copy/Pasta from the Zen DAC and they did not. Galvanic isolation is unlikely. I also suspect that also the automatic disconnection of Vbus and USB Ground that the ZEN DAC does when running on external power has not been integrated. But you really ned to ask iFi about that...

Just get properly insulated power cables. The hums will be gone. Something like this: IECpower cables