[Deiz]

Quote:

Originally Posted by heiste /img/forum/go_quote.gif What about Headroom's balanced cable for hd650?

Headroom's cables terminate in male XLR, they don't a) sell female-to-female XLRs or b) sell reasonably-priced XLR interconnects. They're all overpriced DiMarzio.

The $100 balanced stock cable plus balanced to SE adapter isn't bad for the price, but it wouldn't let you use your 650s with the DAC1 or DA10. Nestacio is right, by the way. The DA10 has a digital volume control.

A brief history, because I can: HeadRoom started balanced headphones with the Blockhead. Tyll chose to use dual male XLR3, which is weird for two reasons: Balanced headphones only use four of the six available pins, so a single XLR4 would do, and with professional audio, male XLRs always connect to inputs, so balanced headphones are backwards - The headphone cable connects to an output with male XLRs and the output is female.

I suspect this may have been done to prevent new users from plugging their new balanced headphones into line-level balanced outputs and blowing them up.

 

[heiste]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Deiz /img/forum/go_quote.gif Headroom's cables terminate in male XLR, they don't a) sell female-to-female XLRs or b) sell reasonably-priced XLR interconnects. They're all overpriced DiMarzio. The $100 balanced stock cable plus balanced to SE adapter isn't bad for the price, but it wouldn't let you use your 650s with the DAC1 or DA10. Nestacio is right, by the way. The DA10 has a digital volume control. A brief history, because I can: HeadRoom started balanced headphones with the Blockhead. Tyll chose to use dual male XLR3, which is weird for two reasons: Balanced headphones only use four of the six available pins, so a single XLR4 would do, and with professional audio, male XLRs always connect to inputs, so balanced headphones are backwards - The headphone cable connects to an output with male XLRs and the output is female. I suspect this may have been done to prevent new users from plugging their new balanced headphones into line-level balanced outputs and blowing them up.

But I can buy two 3 pin female-female adapters and connect to Headroom's cable right?

 

[Deiz]

Quote:

Originally Posted by heiste /img/forum/go_quote.gif But I can buy two 3 pin female-female adapters and connect to Headroom's cable right?

You can, yes.

 

[compuryan]

To answer a couple earlier questions, it'd be better buying the DAC1/DA10 instead of a balanced amp without a good source. Remember that saying that goes around... "garbage in, garbage out"? It means that if your source is garbage, what comes out of your nice flashy balanced amp will also be the same garbage, just amplified. But down the road, when you have more money for a balanced amp better than the integrated one in the DAC1, by all means buy one!

Also the Lavry DA10 indeed has digital volume control. Its adjusted by a little switch on the front.

 

[Kurotetsu]

The Cambridge Audio DACMagic is the cheapest DAC I've seen with balanced outputs:

Cambridge Audio
http://www.cambridgeaudio.com/assets...Magic_rear.jpg

Sells for $399.

Its an upsampling DAC though. I know some people don't like their sound being messed with like that. I'm hoping to upgrade to one from a Zero DAC at some point (if I ever get the money).

 

[Deiz]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kurotetsu /img/forum/go_quote.gif The Cambridge Audio DACMagic is the cheapest DAC I've seen with balanced outputs: Cambridge Audio http://www.cambridgeaudio.com/assets...Magic_rear.jpg Sells for $399. Its an upsampling DAC though. I know some people don't like their sound being messed with like that. I'm hoping to upgrade to one from a Zero DAC at some point (if I ever get the money).

I mentioned it earlier. The issue with it is that its output is non-variable line level, which is necessary for the OP to be able to use headphones directly out of it.

 

[Kurotetsu]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Deiz /img/forum/go_quote.gif I mentioned it earlier. The issue with it is that its output is non-variable line level, which is necessary for the OP to be able to use headphones directly out of it.

Ah, sorry about that. That's what happens when you skim instead of read.

 

[djork]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Deiz /img/forum/go_quote.gif I mentioned it earlier. The issue with it is that its output is non-variable line level, which is necessary for the OP to be able to use headphones directly out of it.

I'm doing just that, i control the volume with foobar (though that's not the ideal way).

 

[Deiz]

Quote:

Originally Posted by djork /img/forum/go_quote.gif I'm doing just that, i control the volume with foobar (though that's not the ideal way).

I consider software volume control dangerous. One misclick and you've got volume at 100%, blowing your drivers out. On the other hand, a volume knob takes a deliberate crank to do damage.

 

[HeadphoneAddict]

I vote for the amplifier first (assuming you have a nice source). In my experience, driving the HD600/650 from the XLR out of the back of the Apogee Mini-DAC was less than impressive. My single ended Woo WA6 sounded a little better most of the time (fed by the Apogee).

And where HD600 benefit the most is in a strong amp with balanced drive rather than the DAC needing to be balanced. So, if you have a good single ended DAC or source, more gains will be found from a good balanced amp that converts SE input to balanced. The Headroom balanced desktop uses a phase splitter to convert the SE input to balanced, and the Single Power Square Wave XL re-creates the negative signal from the positive signal. I am not sure I could tell (with my eyes closed) whether I was listening to my Square Wave XL with a balanced signal or single ended signal (out of my Apogee) because it does such a good job converting the SE signal.

 

[alwayshungry]

I bought a PS Audio DL III with the intention of eventually going to a balanced setup but that may happen sooner rather than later for me so be careful

I am glad that I did pick up a higher end source as it has drastically improved the sound quality of all of my gear. If you are lucky you can find them for a reasonable price on agon.

 

[grawk]

I think running headphones from a balanced source directly is a trap. It can sound good, and can fool you into thinking you know what a source sounds like, but given that the output stages are rarely actually prepared for this, you're limiting yourself pretty severely. I think that a balanced amp, with some way of balancing single ended inputs until you get a good balanced source is the way to go.

 

[heiste]

So getting the Little dot mk6 or some other balanced amp will prove better than a DAC1 or DA10? These are both expensive options and I would like to choose the one that gives me a better sound first

 

[grawk]

You should be aware that the mk 6 has a noisy fan, so not everyone will like it.

Going for balanced on cheap won't get you a lot of benefits over spending the same money on a good single ended solution.

 

[oogabooga]

My $0.02:

I just made a balanced cable on-the-cheap for my HD600s (added a couple XLRs to an HD650 cable) to use with my Apogee Mini-DAC. The output is good, but my first impression is that I slightly prefer the output from the Mini-DAC's headphone out (which I happen to think is already darn good). The HP out seems to have slightly better treble extension.

I don't have a balanced amp, so I can't make much of a comparsion. I'll do some longer listening tests and report back if my initial impressions change.