[Allanmarcus]

 

"balanced" means two things now. The more traditional 3 wire, differential/ground interconnect and the relatively more recent 2 wires to each transducer cable in the headphone world. Wikipedia needs to be updated. 

So is the headphone amp three wire and the headphone cable is two wire? So is it really truly balanced when listening through headphones?

There are amps with fully balanced topologies, some with partial, and some that just have a balanced amp output. Depends on the Amp. More discussion on "balanced amp".
 
The primary benefit of balanced headphones amps is more power. Some people claim they get better separation, sound stage or other sonic benefits. Others claim the sonic benefits are due to higher output through the balanced jack, and most people will interpret louder as better. YMMV
 
The utopias are relatively easy to drive, so the power benefits from balanced are probably minimal, assuming the SE amp has enough power. The other sonic benefits are a function of how good your ears are, the topology of your amp, and may be dependent on how much you paid for your system (the more you paid, the more sonic improvement you will "hear" to justify your expenditure
 
The amp might have different loads or other variations on how single ended vs balanced output in handled/converted in the amp, so balanced and SE might not sound the same for the same headphone SE vs balanced on the same amp. "not the same" doesn't necessarily mean better, but might.

 

[paul2qute]

[COLOR=333333]Only certain headphones can truly be balanced due to connections at the headphone that requires a separate left/right, positive and negative signal. So while some headphones may have an XLR connection to the amp, they may not be balanced due to the connections on the headphone side.[/COLOR]

Interesting stuff,some really clever ppl on here, maybe if we all brain stormed we could start our very own hi-fi company. Oh just picking ppl s brains here but does a remote actually exist when I press the pause button the Mrs pauses too?

 

[turbo87]

What's the warranty on the Focal Utopia? I am hearing anywhere from 2 years to 5 years. What's the official warranty. And is it transferable?

 

[snellemin]

I'll give you an example on how the "balanced" output works on the tiny Ibasso PB2.  
 
A true xlr balanced input or standard SE input can be used with the PB2.  
The output in SE mode uses two buffers and the Balanced mode uses 4 buffers, hence it being louder to boot.  
Signal separation is better than the SE output.

 

[buzzlulu]

Quite a few replies to my question
SO
 
how many are running Utopia's from a balanced amp and having a noticeable improvement 
 
OR
 
the Utopias, being efficient, do not necessarily respond to a balanced amp since they are that good already and Single Ended suffices
 
AND 
 
I can just listen to Rob Watts of Chord Hugo who dismisses balanced and is happy with Single Ended

 

[EdmontonCanuck]

  Quite a few replies to my question
SO
 
how many are running Utopia's from a balanced amp and having a noticeable improvement 
 
OR
 
the Utopias, being efficient, do not necessarily respond to a balanced amp since they are that good already and Single Ended suffices
 
AND 
 
I can just listen to Rob Watts of Chord Hugo who dismisses balanced and is happy with Single Ended
 

 
#3

 

[paul2qute]

If balanced is so special then why is Dave unbalanced?

 

[buzzlulu]

If balanced is so special then why is Dave unbalanced?

As well as Hugo and Mojo

 

[buzzlulu]

So I really guess not too many are running Utopia's balanced 
 
SO
 
Next question
 
How many have upgraded the cable - and has it been worth it?
 
I can see upgrading to get rid of the heavy firehose - obvious candidates being Kimber (recommended by Focal) or Nordost
 
So yes they are not firehoses
However how much of a sonic improvement do they provide?

 

[Imusicman]

If balanced is so special then why is Dave unbalanced?

 
Interesting question to which I think there is no definitive answer. Different companies take different approaches.
 
Dave is an amazing bit of kit but what this proves to me is that a DAC/Amp can sound fantastic even if it's only got a SE option. However I think when Dac/Amps have both SE and Balanced options available most people tend to favour the balanced option.

 

[TSAVJason]

Not that there isn't more headphones that are fully balanced but I can only think of 1 headphone that is fully balanced. The Abyss. Full differential is a 3 wire format per channel. Balanced in 2 wire simply means independent grounds per channel v a common ground wire shared by the 2 channels. I hope that helps that question.

As far as Chord and single ended, it's true Robb Watts believes his amp gain circumvents the need or use of a balanced amp and subsequent driver connection.

He's right to the extend that they feel true Balanced is not required for the additional gain Balanced generally results in. There isn't a right or wrong in this just a cost and product style choice. Robb is right to the extent it's Chords decision to run single ended.

 

[dannybgoode]

Interesting question to which I think there is no definitive answer. Different companies take different approaches.

Dave is an amazing bit of kit but what this proves to me is that a DAC/Amp can sound fantastic even if it's only got a SE option. However I think when Dac/Amps have both SE and Balanced options available most people tend to favour the balanced option.

Going out on a limb i think many people prefer if simply because they think they're meant to with no understanding of the true (lack of) benefits.

Interesting Trilogy don't offer a balanced input or output on either their 931 or 933 amp viewing it as unnecessary.

 

[paul2qute]

So I really guess not too many are running Utopia's balanced 

SO

Next question

How many have upgraded the cable - and has it been worth it?

I can see upgrading to get rid of the heavy firehose - obvious candidates being Kimber (recommended by Focal) or Nordost

So yes they are not firehoses
However how much of a sonic improvement do they provide?

well buzz I'm demo ing the Nordost heimdall 2 soon so I'll let you know

 

[Lappy27]

I have an aftermarket cable for my Utopia. It's a balanced cable made of OCC silver at 21 AWG. I also got the SE adaptor for the cable so it's easy to make the comparison between SE and balanced on my Audio gd Reference 10.32.
 
I did the comparison mutiples times and I can say without any hesitation that the sound of each output is significantly different after volume matching. With balanced connection, I get definitive better separation and openess (larger soundstage). Everything is also clearer, sharper with a blacker background. But sometime I get some little amount of glare on some tracks and I wish I could have a bit more bass quantity. With SE, the sound is more relaxing, fuller with clearly more bass output but the soundstage is significantly narrower and with less depth also and more laid back mids and details. So, it's basically precision vs relaxation. Lively vs smooth. I alterned with my mood but it's hard to go back to SE after hearing the balanced output. When you experimented top notch resolution, it's really hard to go back to a less defined sound. I would call SE output as a break for my hears after long dynamics listening sessions with the Utopia. But quickly, I want to go back to balanced.
 
Obviously, all the above have to do with the topology of my amp/dac and maybe too that some resistance is added by the SE adaptor.
 
Finally, despite my big preference for OCC silver cabling in general (except for power), I'm still not sure it's the best material for the already extremely revealing Utopia. I would like to try a really good OCC copper to compare. My 4 pins XLR is a Furutech Rhodium connector. Well made but extremely long to burned and to stabilized because of the proprietary demag and cryo process of Furutech. About 500 hours to settled. Today it's around 175 hours. Rhodium connectors are harsh and lack bass in comparison of gold connectors for the first hundreds of hours but became smoother and fuller with burn in.
 
But like I said, it's hard to give up resolution when you heard it. I even prefer to give up some bass to get more clarity and resolution. And that, it's coming from a guy who really love bass.

 

[Allanmarcus]

So I really guess not too many are running Utopia's balanced 

SO

Next question

How many have upgraded the cable - and has it been worth it?

I can see upgrading to get rid of the heavy firehose - obvious candidates being Kimber (recommended by Focal) or Nordost

So yes they are not firehoses
However how much of a sonic improvement do they provide?

You aren't going to get a definitive answer. Also, you can't make the generalization you make in the first sentence.

Many that buy expensive cables claim they hear a sonic improvement. Many that don't buy expensive cables claim there is no scientific evidence that expensive cables are better. Balanced vs SE is dependent on the amp and headphones. Some companies like chord don't believe balanced is needed, and other companies take great stock is a fully balanced toplogogy.

so

You are just gong to get get folks riled-up and wanting to defend their opinions and choices. In other words, asking these questions are close to trolling. There are tons of discussions on these topics in this thread and others.