amcananey
Forever a 500+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Nov 1, 2010
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Quick question: is there some reason why tube amps don't need balanced inputs in order to be "truly" or "fully" balanced, whereas solid state do require balanced inputs?
I was looking at the Smack WOT from Bottlehead (see here). It is a DIY tube amp with balanced and single-ended outputs, but I couldn't see where the balanced inputs were. I called up, and they confirmed that it only had standard, RCA inputs, but then claimed that it doesn't need balanced inputs.
Now I know that you can technically create an amp that will drive headphones in a balanced configuration without using balanced inputs, but I thought that the consensus was that there wasn't really much point - that the benefit (to the extent there is any) of using a balanced rig really only applies if you are balanced from start to finish (i.e., source outputs balanced signal to balanced amp to balanced headphones).
Is there some reason why this is not true with regard to a tube amp, even though it is true with regard to solid state amps?
Regards,
Adam
I was looking at the Smack WOT from Bottlehead (see here). It is a DIY tube amp with balanced and single-ended outputs, but I couldn't see where the balanced inputs were. I called up, and they confirmed that it only had standard, RCA inputs, but then claimed that it doesn't need balanced inputs.
Now I know that you can technically create an amp that will drive headphones in a balanced configuration without using balanced inputs, but I thought that the consensus was that there wasn't really much point - that the benefit (to the extent there is any) of using a balanced rig really only applies if you are balanced from start to finish (i.e., source outputs balanced signal to balanced amp to balanced headphones).
Is there some reason why this is not true with regard to a tube amp, even though it is true with regard to solid state amps?
Regards,
Adam
