Quote:
Originally Posted by grandenigma1
That is not necessarily true... You can get a Dynamid or balanced M3 for at or less than the price of a HR-2 / GS-1 / PPX3.
I think sending in the Zu for retermination is the best bet. Your only other options are to have someone make you one. But since you already have the Zu and apparently like it then that is what I would suggest.
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800-900 is still a big investment.
I think Brian should listen to the amps first before he decides balanced is right for him.
Balanced and single ended.. Two different sounds. It does not necessarily reflect whether the listener will prefer the balanced sound. Also any perceived improvements from single ended to balanced is different from listener to listener.
It also does not mean a low cost balanced (place $1000k amp here) will be sonically superior then the single ended upper tier amps you mentioned in your post above to the "listener". thats a subjective decision.
both balanced and unbalanced can hit very high performance levels and sound quality.
I ve listened to a pair of balanced 650s before, and a pair of single ended 650s, both two different sounds, it wasn't a question of what sound was better, it was which sound I thought I would prefer.
Balanced headphone set ups should be listened to first before deciding. All this balanced talk sounds more like bragging rights more than anything, IMHO. I think balanced headphone amplification was introduced as a high end audiophile rig, then people sought a cheaper alternative to what was offered afterwards, the headphones themselves were designed for single ended use
. But as with the law of audiophilia, it gets extreme
and remember balanced rigs dont stop at the amplifier, each succeeding headphone you get afterwards has to be modified $$$$$$, new XLR interconnects need to be purchased. Single ended amps mentioned above do not require this so that is the trade off.. Even for the budget conscience balance rigs still require a lot of money to support.