[Fly2High]

Are all the best headphones balanced?

I do not have a balanced amp and was wondering what are some of the best single ended headphones currently available?

I have not heard much but in my price bracket, I find the Sundara are very good. What else are there? I am sure there are many more

thanks in advance
Frank

 

[silent-circuit]

I mean... This is a weird question. You can get really powerful and low distortion SE amps, it's just easier to get those things from a balanced amp.

The answer is, "with the right amp, all of them."

 

[rlanger]

Hi Frank.

What exactly do you mean? Headphones aren't balanced. Sources and cables are balanced. Do you mean which headphones perform best in single-mode as opposed to balanced?

Rob

 

[go_vtec]

Are all the best headphones balanced?

I do not have a balanced amp and was wondering what are some of the best single ended headphones currently available?

I have not heard much but in my price bracket, I find the Sundara are very good. What else are there? I am sure there are many more

thanks in advance
Frank

No, most of headphones, even the higher end headphones are available with the SE.

For example, Audeze LCD-4 comes with the factory silver coated SE cable. Some headphones, you get both from the factory, like Focal Utopia/Clear, and for some you can choose either balanced or single ended cable as a choice.

 

[Fly2High]

What I mean is that I find so many say that headphones do better on balanced and that many amps have at least double the power but some have more than that for balanced over SE. it seemed to me that single ended was the ugly step child.

I was wondering if SE top quality headphones existed or if the best are balanced. Seems to me that SE cables usually come with balanced but are there any really good ones that only come SE?

 

[Quartzwald]

I think you're confusing some things. Like already mentioned, headphones ARE NOT inherently SE or balanced. You can use a balanced cable with a Sennheiser HD800, or you can use an SE one. It won't affect the sound either way unless your amplifier has a better balanced circuit than an SE one like the Schiit Magnius. Perhaps the better question you should be asking is what are the amps with the best SE output. And yes, there are excellent SE-only amps, like the Feliks Audio Euforia for example. The 10+ year old solid state Beta22 is another SE headphone amp that is still among the best today.

 

[go_vtec]

I think you are still getting confused on the cables vs. headphones. As I explained, all highend and/or best headphones (your definition may very, but I assume best headphones are mostly very expensive top flagship models) available with the "default" SE cables from the factory, thus all best headphones "are" available with the SE. So "SE top quality headphones" do exist.

However, balanced cables are options as separate purchases in most cases for these highend or best headphones. In some rare occasions, you get both cables or you get to choose one of SE or Balanced cable, where the headphones are still identical, but using either SE cable or balanced cable. In most of cases, using balanced cables with the fully balanced amp circuitry add more dynamic powerful sounds (double the output power/voltage) and allow complete signal separation between left and right channel. Many solid state amps do come with balanced outputs to accommodate the balanced cables. However, most of tube amplifiers, fully balanced tube amps are much rare and much more costly than solid state amps. Hence, many highend tube amps are only equipped with the SE outputs. There are few exceptions, but you will see many awesome tube amps that costing over $1-2K are only equipped with the SE output. Fully balanced tube amps do exist, but they cost significantly more. To me, headphone cable choices between the SE and balanced cables are personal preferences and NOT an absolute rule that balanced is always noticeably better.

For these highend/best headphones with SE cables, some folks will pay few hundreds or even over a thousand dollars to buy custom made cables (mostly balanced in these cases). However, I've seen and heard some very good headphone systems, where SE vs Balanced operations can be difficult to discern. When the volume of SE output is cranked up to match the balanced output volume, it is often sounds fairly similar and very difficult to tell them apart. In short, I wouldn't assume the "best" headphones only come in balanced version; SE cabled version of the same headphones are fairly confident and comparable in typical use cases if a comparable volume level can be achieved. Of course, this is my own opinion and your mileage may vary.

 

[Fly2High]

I am only very recently got into this hobby and was somewhat under the impression that there were SE only headphones. Yeah, I did not really know that you could swap to balanced since I did not see the option offered in the price range I can afford. Also, I am a bit foreign to the idea that cables could be changed ( much less can make an audible difference). Got a lot to learn and become familiar with.

I appreciate the explanations. Thanks

 

[go_vtec]

You are right in certain regards, where in the old days, most headphones came with non-detachable single ended cables. In more recent years, say within last decade, most of headphones do come with reasonably easy to detach replaceable headphone cables. Some highend Focal and Sennheiser models do come with both SE and Balanced cables from the factory.
In theory, balanced cables should be at least equal or better than SE cables and they do measure equal or better with the lab equipment. However, for a casual listener, it is very difficult to hear the differences when the output volumes are matched in the same amp (one with the both balanced and SE outputs).

When a head-fi member starts to think or actually care about these differences or improvements matter to him/her, that is when we get to say “Welcome to Head-fi and sorry about your wallet!”