Help with balanced/unbalanced DAP

[gasnets]

1. No you can't. Balanced has 4 poles while your IEM likely has 3 poles.
2. Y̶o̶u̶ ̶c̶a̶n̶ ̶u̶s̶e̶ ̶a̶n̶ ̶a̶d̶a̶p̶t̶e̶r̶ ̶b̶u̶t̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶n̶ ̶y̶o̶u̶ ̶l̶o̶s̶e̶ ̶s̶o̶m̶e̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶b̶e̶n̶e̶f̶i̶t̶s̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶u̶s̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶b̶a̶l̶a̶n̶c̶e̶d̶ ̶c̶o̶n̶n̶e̶c̶t̶i̶o̶n̶.̶ I'd recommend you just use the single ended output... It's not like IEM really use all that much power anyways.
3. Balanced is a rather controversial thing. Some people claim it improves the sound while others claim it has no audible benefits. What balanced does from a technical stand point is deliver more power and lowers noise.

Edit: Didn't know you can't do balanced to single ended. Sorry for wrong info.

 

[gasnets]

Help help. Used a 2.5 to 3.5 adapter on my pioneer xdp300. That player had balanced output via 2.5 output. My regular single ended headphones worked just fine. Much louder. My new DAP Hiby R5 has 4.4 balanced output and using and adapter clips headphones at volume and distorts. Needless to say I stopped using the adapter. Is there an adapter that will work? All these new players today always offer stronger output via balanced. Hate that. Or should I just buy balanced cans

 

[buke9]

OK just a bit confused do you have balanced headphones/earphones ? The adapter that came with my R6 Pro was a 2.5 to 4.4mm adapter works fine with a balanced cable with headphones or earphones that can be balanced.