[pdupiano]

After hearing some balanced set ups in the recent NJ Meet, I've gotten more curious about how balanced cables achieve their sound versus their not so balanced counterparts. At this point, I'm convinced that the primary reason for a balanced set up is to reject essentially all noise. Now what if a diyer were to design a headphone cable that is impervious to noise?

I think Les Garten is the one who recabled his SR225i's with two canare cables but he ended up making them into a balanced set of headphones. What if he terminated to a standard TRS instead for unbalanced operation? Wouldn't they sound identical (barring that the amps are identical). If I were to use single channel, RFI protected cables (eg metal shielding) for each driver, would I end up with the same sound as a balanced set up?

I'd like to try this but I don't have a balanced set up to directly compare between the two. I was wondering if another diyer had the ability to test this, or if anyone can confirm that this is true.

OR if anyone has any ideas why this wouldn't work, I'd also appreciate it if you could shed some light on the noise issue.

Thanks,
Paul

 

[FallenAngel]

It's not balanced cables, it's balanced amps.

 

[pdupiano]

Why would a balanced amp surpass an unbalanced one? You're simply amplifying a signal (assuming same amp is used).

 

[JamesL]

First off.. headphone cables shouldn't pick up noise.

Second, the noise picked up by a balanced interconnect is common to both the inverted and non-inverted signal, and therefore cancels itself out.
If you use a TRS plug, you can't have an inverted signal. The shield merely acts as a faraday cage, and passively grounds external rf noise. Its not as effective as using a differential signal through a twisted pair, but its the best you can do.

Also, there are many advantages of a balanced setup, but hardly any of them have anything to do with cables.

edit: wanted to note that this isn't true for professional studio use, in which case the primary purpose of using a differential signal is to use long lengths of high-impedance lines without picking up noise. I think ...

 

[pdupiano]

So what are the advantages of a balanced set up besides the noise rejection based on differential operation?

Here's the scenario:
1: balanced set up: source (balanced) => amp (balanced) =>headphones (balanced)
2: TRS: Source/Amp are in one box (SE) => Headphones

So if noise enters the system through interconnects etc... we can get rid of this problem by using the situation with an SE based system that does not use interconnects (because its a connected system) -please note we are still assuming that we are using the same sources and amps think cdp to an m^3 with active ground for the TRS and the same cdp to a balanced m^3 but in two separate enclosures.

So at this point, which system would sound better? What advantages does the balanced set up have (besides quad amplification)?
Please note:
1. Assuming headphone cables do not pick up noise
2. Assuming No noise is picked up in between source to amp