BattleBrat, I think they are just stereo RCA. Two channel stereo RCA is different from balance configuration. I could be wrong, but I don't think your Lisa L3 is a balance amplifier. The Toucan PB1 and PB2 are true balance amps. So is the RSA SR71B. The Lisa amps can take regular RCA L/R stereo analogue input but they are not balance input. In order to get true balance input from a source, the only way to get it is to use a balance DAC like the Ibasso DB1/2 where it will take digital signal from a source and split the signal up for true balance output. I doubt that the RCA output of the istreamer is balance out either. I think they are just stereo out. Somewhere along the signal path, the signal has to be split digitally into balance signals. I copy the exerpt from Headroom with regard to their balance Dac. But most balance dac follow similar typology.
"To get the most out of your balanced headphone system, it’s important to use gear that provides true differential balanced drive signals. The Ultra Desktop DAC is such a device.
With typical unbalanced audio systems, the audio is carried on a single conductor, while a shield or ground conductor is provided for the return current path. A differential balanced drive system uses two audio signals: a normal audio signal, and a matching but inverted audio signal. A ground conductor may be used as a shield, but is technically not required.
Balanced drive has long been used to reduce interference on long cable runs. But while some gear may have balanced connections externally, they are often single-ended devices internally, which are either transformer coupled or use phase splitters to create the balanced signal. These methods result in the normal and inverted audio signals to be slightly imperfect mirror images of each other, and degrades the performance.
In a fully differential balanced drive system, a source of perfectly matching balanced signals is followed by identical, highly-matched signal paths.In the Ultra Desktop DAC the signals are created by pairs of DACs that are running in normal and inverted modes and therefore create perfectly matched signals.
A perfectly balanced phono stage could be implemented by taking the signals of either side of the cartridge coil and running the signals through identical RIAA equalization and output driver channels. The advantage of this method goes far beyond simply reducing induced noise; slew rate is doubled, some harmonic distortion components are suppressed, and a doubling of output power is realized."
