[Dummyc0m]

Hi y'all. I'm just getting started with headphones, so hopefully I don't end up spending as much as I did with mechanical keyboards (typing on an ergodox with hako violets right now). My first semi-nice headphones were the Sony WH1000XM3's, and I was pleasantly surprised by how much of an improvement they were over my crappy laptop speakers and gaming headsets.

Anyways. I've been watching a few reviews here and there, and I still don't quite get the difference between balanced and unbalanced. It seems counter-intuitive that adding another ground would do anything. Is it just something expensive dac/amps do?

Edit: Just got my Focal Elex with atom/topping d30. Having a blast!

 

[SilverEars]

Hi y'all. I'm just getting started with headphones, so hopefully I don't end up spending as much as I did with mechanical keyboards (typing on an ergodox with hako violets right now). My first semi-nice headphones were the Sony WH1000XM3's, and I was pleasantly surprised by how much of an improvement they were over my crappy laptop speakers and gaming headsets.

Anyways. I've been watching a few reviews here and there, and I still don't quite get the difference between balanced and unbalanced. It seems counter-intuitive that adding another ground would do anything. Is it just something expensive dac/amps do?

It's odd how you went from a wireless bluetooth ANC headphone to asking about balanced connections. Arn't you more curious how an open headphone sounds like? Typical audiophile headphone is open and is passive (doesn't have DAC/Amp built in like the XM3) wired connnected to a dedicated Amp with a DAC.

 

[Dummyc0m]

It's odd how you went from a wireless bluetooth ANC headphone to asking about balanced connections. Arn't you more curious how an open headphone sounds like? Typical audiophile headphone is open and is passive (doesn't have DAC/Amp built in like the XM3) wired connnected to a dedicated Amp with a DAC.

I have the Focal Elex coming in on Saturday with JDS Labs Atom and Topping D30. Indeed I cannot wait.

 

[Darksoul]

It's complicated. I prefer to test things my self, to build my own impressions. Currently my portable rig is a thoroughly burned in Sony WM1A and a Campfire Vega running balanced. For reasons I can't explain, the Vega sounds fuller, richer, more detailed running balanced and high gain. I connected it to the SE connection and it just wasn't as pants wetting. My conclusion when it comes to IEM and DAP, balanced yields the best results, at least on my setup. I'm not the entire world of music listeners.

Balanced full sized headphones, I've recently migrated part of my desktop setup to Balanced. I'm starting small, I have a SMSL M300 feeding from the XLR balanced connection to my Violectric V200. I really don't know if it's the dynamic range of the DAC, the XLR connection, but My headphones are putting out more details. So when it comes to balanced DAC, there's a positive improvement, it's not marginal, it's not miles ahead. But it's not negligible.

After I stumbled upon this article by Benchmark:

https://benchmarkmedia.com/blogs/application_notes/audio-myth-balanced-headphone-outputs-are-better

I decided to not change my AMP to balanced. So I've decided to play with tone control, just for fun.

 

[NZtechfreak]

Balanced is not required for most headphones, applied to headphones you get more power going balanced and better stereo separation, often with increased output impedance (which may cause alterations to frequency response in the connected headphone depending on its impedance, usually these changes are for the worst, however depending on subjective taste some users may like them). Rejection of noise, a benefit of balanced connections in recording situations where you might be using very long cable runs, have no impact for headphone use. Some headphones have very low sensitivities (HiFiMan HE-6 and Susvara, the Abyss) and will require using a balanced connection for most headphone amplifiers, but these are very much outliers.

Often the benefits people hear with going balanced will come down to increased power output - we perceive sound quality as improved with even modest increases volume.

 

[SilverEars]

I have the Focal Elex coming in on Saturday with JDS Labs Atom and Topping D30. Indeed I cannot wait.

Ok then, that's a start to finding out what an open headphone sounds like. You can always try to demo an amp with balanced and single ended connection to see if you can hear a difference, although what's really tricky about balanced vs single ended is that, balanced output has 4 times the power, but high as it may sound, loudness is in dB in a logorithmic scale. Also, it's quite tricky to conclude you heard better out of balanced due to this loudness difference if you switch back and forth. You have to volume match or adjust the volume every time you switch back and forth because if you do not, balanced will sound louder and to our ears, louder will sound better. Also, our ears have different response at different volume levels. At certain volume, we may hear more V-shaped, and another, more leveled. These are the reasons why, trying to compare balanced and single ended is tricky. This is something you should keep in mind when doing such comparisons, because without this knowledge, we will assume something has caused it, but in reality it wasn't what we thought it was.

 

[surfgeorge]

Similar question was asked a little while ago:
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/short-cables-where-balanced-cables-why.923737/post-15429431

One thing I'd add is that power is not just about loudness, a good amplifier can have better control over headphones and even IEMs can benefit.
The 4 main elements that will define SQ are:

• the recording (and data file quality)
• DAC (digital/analog conversion)
• amplifier
• headphone/IEM

The journey starts with the headphones/IEMs, but once you enter audiophile territory (which can start as low as $/€100) the DAC/Amp starts playing a role IMO.
General tip for finding what you like - buying used lets really helped me to try things without losing much money when selling them again.

 

[tomb]

Balanced vs. Differential:
There is a school of thought that refers to "Balanced" if an amplifier allows balanced connections on input and output, ultimately meaning it could be placed in the path of pro equipment cables and not be detrimental to the noise performance. You will see some headphone amplifiers that are actually single-ended circuits on the inside, but are marketed as "balanced" amplifiers because they allow balanced connections.

The actual difference in the amplifier circuit occurs when the signal path is split into its differential components, either before the amplifier (from a differential output DAC) or inside the amplifier itself. This essentially doubles the voltage swing to the load (headphone) and provides an opportunity for solid-state amps to provide wide voltage swings, when most solid-state components are often limited in voltage capability. With true tube amplifiers, the voltage are 200-300V, and achieving a significant voltage swing is not an issue. In any event, the same school of thought above refers to an amplifier as "Fully-Differential" only if it has a fully differential circuit. Similarly, the connections on the amplifier may or may not allow balanced connections, but can still be fully differential.

Fully differential circuits cancel out the common mode distortion between the signal components, so there is some advantage in using the circuit, even if voltage limitations are not an issue and balanced connections are not used.

All that said, the primary difference in listening with headphones is most likely a segregated, four-wire connection (two wires per driver) at the amp. The use of two separate ground wires can achieve a ~20dB improvement in signal separation over a shared ground wire between the cans. This makes a noticeable difference, even if the amp is single ended and just uses a 4-pin XLR jack.

 

[Darth Plagueis the Wise]

Balanced basically works by running channels on separate grounds and flipping polarity of signals. By doing this, the hope is to further eliminate noise, especially due to external electromagnetic interference. The technical reason behind this is the superposition of waves: as the two signals, one flipped (cold) and another not (hot), run through the setup and pick up noise, the noise signals are not flipped and are in phase. As the cold signal needs to be flipped in polarity again before it is ultimately played, the noise on the cold line is also flipped - just right to cancel with the noise on the hot. I think this is called common-mode rejection, but I'm not sure. It is very useful in large setups with very long wires and a lot of other devices, but for home audio, it doesn't make a big difference besides making you spend more money on cables.

I won't recommend balanced to normal headphone users. The reasons are twofold:
1. You don't need those. Buying better headphones/iems would have a way larger benefit to the experience than a balanced setup. Something like the Atom can go a long way;
2. You might not want those. More expensive, way bulkier, and might not improve the sound by much, if at all. THX 999 sounding great isn't a proof of balanced being better: there is way more research that went into this than balanced signals. Buy what you like.