[vcoheda]

i too notice hum from the power supply of the BA. i purchased a PS Audio Humbuster III. i haven't done a lot of A/B but my impression is that it reduces the hum by about 50-60%.

 

[nspindel]

Hey folks, mind if I crash this party? I'm the proud new owner of a Balancing Act, I just purchased one from audiosceptic. He had to ship it to Craig for some work, but the work is done and Craig will be shipping it to me.

I'm really looking forward to getting this amp. I'm buying audiosceptic's KR PX4's, and won several eBay auctions over the past few days - a TungSol BGRP, a ShuGuang Treasure CV181-Z, and a Brimar CV1988 brown base.

Source is a Bolder Cable modded Squeezebox Touch, into a Benchmark DAC1 Pre. I'll be using the BA as a headamp and a preamp. I'll be running the BA balanced into a Krell KAV-2250, pushing modded Polk SDA1C's.

For cans, I'll be using HD800's and LCD-2's, with a Double Helix Molecule balanced cable, in copper.

Can't wait for this amp to arrive!

 

[KingStyles]

Congrats, welcome to the club.

 

[nspindel]

Cheers!

 

[mill999red]

beautiful amps...Craig is building a ZDT for me...3 weeks to go

 

[indiehop]

I got my LCD-2's and have been listening to music in combination with the BA for à month now. It is just bliss. I went speaker shopping this weekend, and quickly realized that the kind of sound that BA+LCD-2 deliver is not going to be so easy to beat. BA sets the bar so high!

 

[nspindel]

Happy to say that I'm mad-pleased with this amp.  The amp and all the tubes I purchased have arrived and I'm a happy customer.  I have to agree with the KR PX4, TS BGRP combo.  Simply brilliant sound.
 
I've also pulled the plug on a Wyred4Sound DAC2, I'd be interested in putting it up against my Benchmark DAC1 Pre.  I love the Benchmark but do understand where the criticisms of it sounding clinical and analytical as opposed to musical come from.  The W4S has been so well reviewed of late, I really feel I owe it to myself to evaluate the two against each other.  One of them will end up being sold.
 
I have to say that the big surprise here has been the LCD-2's.  I'm blown away by them.  The combo of the LCD-2 with the ECBA is about as good as I could ever imagine headphones sounding.  My Senn HD800's are inching their way towards the for-sale pile.
 
I do have a question, though.  Wondering if anyone has any recommendations for closed cans that will sound nice if I balance them and run them through the ECBA?  As good as the LCD-2's sound, they're not real friendly to anyone else who may be in the room with me.  Right now I have my setup in a dedicated room, so not really a problem, but down the road it will become one.  Wondering if anyone has any suggestions for cans that the rest of the world can't hear, but are worthy enough to be a part of an ECBA setup?

 

[KingStyles]

Glad you like it. i would tell you to get the LA7000 which have balanced signature to them, but they dont isolate as well as you would expect closed cans to. Just received my lcd2 today and they are a good match for the ba for sure.
 
On another note, does anybody know how the ba works? Does it receive a balanced signal and convert via a transformer to a single ended signal than changes it back to a balanced signal via a transformer. If so, wouldnt you get better quality sound imputing a single ended signal so it only has to go through a transformer switch once at the end to change it to the balanced out?

 

[recstar24]

Kingstyles,

At least from the input side, you do get considerable benefits running through the balanced cinemag input transformers. One is great CMRR and that coupled with isolated grounding means it's probably quieter and less noise than single ended. The cool thing about input transformers is that if run single ended you still get the grounding benefits. Balanced in my experience also seems to be less sensitive to the type of interconnect used, thus taking that variable out of the equation. As far as I know running the output balanced or single ended shouldn't make a difference really since the circuit itself is single ended.

Another aspect is your source. A lot of sources their balanced implementation is superior to it's single ended output.

 

[nspindel]

Balanced may be less sensitive to interconnects, but not immune. I just tried running silver xlr's between my dac and the BA. Couldn't take it, went back to my old cables. The silver was very revealing, and there were a few things I heard that really amazed me. But that came at the expense of pain, literally, on high pitched tones. Particularly with female vocals, high pitches really hurt my ears. And that was after ~300 hours of breaking the cable in. I went back to copper and all was dandy.

 

[KingStyles]

I am getting ready to try some silver ic. I need a little more top end. I think silver might be perfect for my setup.

 

[blubliss]

Not sure if this is posted elsewhere but recstar24 wrote an awesome review at Inner Fidelity.
 
http://www.innerfidelity.com/content/eddie-current-balancing-act

 

[kiertijai]

I am a newbie here and don't know much abaout the balanced interconnect , however I admitted that I spent top dollars for the XLR interconnect and I am now looking for a couple because I changed my amplifier into the balanced one.  I have one analysis plus XLR , it is OK but not great.  I also agree that copper will be a better thing to go thatn silver but some silver in it will be good.  What would be our suggestion heare , I don't wnat to spend more than 1-1.5 /m.   I previously thought of the Sakra because everybody said it may be one of the best but I don't buy into tha.  Could somebody heresuggested for me , no DIY please because I don't know how to do that.  Also do we need the XLR digital cable instead of the RCA digital cable or BNC . B NC will be a better one but I don't have the BNC connection and I have to use the adapter which I don't wnat to use.   A seller suggested me the Stealth Sakra, Stage III concepts chimaera or Argento  but  I think I will be totally ripped off because of that.  Angain any suggestion will be more than highlyappreciated.  MY CD is Lindemann 820S and by amplifier is balanced beta 22 + new balancing act 300B/PX4 platform.  My RCA now is  stealth indra and audioquest sky 72DBS whcih I thought both of them are good but not cost effective.
 
thanks,

 

[KingStyles]

 
Quote:

Not sure if this is posted elsewhere but recstar24 wrote an awesome review at Inner Fidelity.

Thanks, I hadnt noticed it on IF.

 

[KingStyles]

 
Quote:

I am a newbie here and don't know much abaout the balanced interconnect , however I admitted that I spent top dollars for the XLR interconnect and I am now looking for a couple because I changed my amplifier into the balanced one.  I have one analysis plus XLR , it is OK but not great.  I also agree that copper will be a better thing to go thatn silver but some silver in it will be good.  What would be our suggestion heare , I don't wnat to spend more than 1-1.5 /m.   I previously thought of the Sakra because everybody said it may be one of the best but I don't buy into tha.  Could somebody heresuggested for me , no DIY please because I don't know how to do that.  Also do we need the XLR digital cable instead of the RCA digital cable or BNC . B NC will be a better one but I don't have the BNC connection and I have to use the adapter which I don't wnat to use.   A seller suggested me the Stealth Sakra, Stage III concepts chimaera or Argento  but  I think I will be totally ripped off because of that.  Angain any suggestion will be more than highlyappreciated.  MY CD is Lindemann 820S and by amplifier is balanced beta 22 + new balancing act 300B/PX4 platform.  My RCA now is  stealth indra and audioquest sky 72DBS whcih I thought both of them are good but not cost effective.
 

 
I was actually looking at the audioquest sky or the acoustic zen silver reference. I cant speak from experience, but if you are looking for copper ic, why dont you just stick with the audioquest line? The copper version are much cheaper than the sky. As far as I found, you want to look for the purist grade (4n,5n,etc), solid core,  and in an air dielectric. That seems to be what is usually in the high end cables.