Lol...I have been warned...I knew my kevlar jacket would come in handy one of these days!
Kevlar jacket? Oh, in that case, you'll be greeted by an ice pick, which goes through Kevlar vests like a hot knife through butter (Kevlar cloth is great for big things like bullets, but an ice pick goes right through between the woven fibers.
Thanks for letting me know so I'll be better prepared.
This whole balanced connection thing got me thinking.... My source is vinyl and phono preamp has no balanced circuitry or balanced connections.
Will using a balanced cable for LCD-2 / Bryston be advantageous over a SE cable in this situation?
What the headphone community calls "balanced," the rest of the audio world calls "bridged." This is where two identical channels are bridged together in order to achieve a higher voltage swing when working with limited power supply voltage. This was common in car audio before reliable switchmode power supplies came along to allow for higher power supply voltages than 12 volts.
In the rest of the audio world, "balanced" is all about differential inputs and common-mode noise rejection, which is important in environments like recording studios where very long runs of cable are used.
A bridged amplifier does not have a differential input and offers zero common-mode noise rejection.
The long and the short of it is that the person who got the whole "balanced" thing started in the headphone market didn't really understand what they were doing and misused the word "balanced." And while it has become rather popular in the headphone community, it offers no meaningful technical advantage and has just become a gimmick.
The interesting thing about bridged amps is that all else being equal, they will give you 6 dB more gain. And it's a curious thing about humans in that we perceive a bit louder as higher quality. This is something that unscrupulous stereo salesmen would often take advantage of, making sure to play the system they
wanted to sell just a tiny bit louder.
Personally I think this is why "balanced" came to be so popular. That and that "balanced" is typically associated with high quality professional gear although it is something completely different from bridging.
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