[Fido2]

Quote:

Bass impact, soundstage?  Details, smidge more.

Haahaha...OK. I went back and swapped cables back and forth a few times SE to BAL. You definitely have to turn the volume up a tiny bit when listening SE to match the BAL level. But sound quality-wise it's really close with a slight edge going to BAL. I can just hear a bit deeper in the mix and the vocal textures and sibilants are a bit more natural. The whole PRAT thing is a bit better with all the hues being a little better defined. BUT the SE is no slouch, it's really very close and I can't swear I would be able to tell the difference in a blind test. This is with my LCD-2's ONLY! So other phones might and probably will sound better or worse on a case by case basis.
 I was listening to Dead Can Dance "Within the Realm of a Dying Sun" CD, track 4 "Xavier" so a very clean clear deep recording to judge with.

 

[Solude]

You have to raise the volume by 6dB to match... that's more than a little bit
 
But the easiest way to match... Listen to balanced on low gain, switch to high for single ended.  That will be very close to matched if not exact.  In short even in amps 5+5=10

 

[Fido2]

Wow 6dBs? Thanks for that...good to know. Yeah hi to low gain is 6 dB difference. Cool...

 

[R-Audiohead]

Thanks guys. Maybe I don't need to make a jump to balanced right away after all. I should still have plenty of voltage swing running single ended into 300+ ohms on high gain

 

[Olias of Sunhillow]

I use my HD800s with the Bryston's SE output and have no issues. I don't have a balanced cable for the HD800s so I can't compare the outputs directly, but I know what the HD800 are supposed to sound like.

 

[DTrewwye]

Quote:

Haahaha...OK. I went back and swapped cables back and forth a few times SE to BAL. You definitely have to turn the volume up a tiny bit when listening SE to match the BAL level. But sound quality-wise it's really close with a slight edge going to BAL. I can just hear a bit deeper in the mix and the vocal textures and sibilants are a bit more natural. The whole PRAT thing is a bit better with all the hues being a little better defined. BUT the SE is no slouch, it's really very close and I can't swear I would be able to tell the difference in a blind test. This is with my LCD-2's ONLY! So other phones might and probably will sound better or worse on a case by case basis.
 I was listening to Dead Can Dance "Within the Realm of a Dying Sun" CD, track 4 "Xavier" so a very clean clear deep recording to judge with.

Ah orthos, I'm planning to go that route w/ Paradox..  Though my test of the BHA-1 was with my friends T5P

 

[ehlarson]

Quote:

 
Going by the preliminary owner's manual, SE input to SE output is non-inverted
 
 
 
If "nature abhors the vacuum tube", what is it's opinion of a JFET? a MOSFET? a BJT?

 
I am sure he would like them all.
 
J R Pierce in the sig is a link to a Wikipedia page. Interesting guy. Coinventor of PCM, was Bardeen Brattain and Shockley's supervisor. Invented the word "transistor". Directed the program to build the first communications satellite. Etc etc etc.
 
We owe a lot to him.

 

[ehlarson]

Quote:

You have to raise the volume by 6dB to match... that's more than a little bit
 
But the easiest way to match... Listen to balanced on low gain, switch to high for single ended.  That will be very close to matched if not exact.  In short even in amps 5+5=10

 
Might not be close enough though. Supposedly you need a match to 0.1 dB, otherwise you could hear the louder source as an improvement in sound quality.

 

[Solude]

0.1dB is bloody hard to achieve.  Your headphones drivers are no where near that well matched and you probably don't prefer one side to the other  I've had some as far out as 2dB that most couldn't notice.  But short of a dB metre, I have one, use the gain switch.

 

[ehlarson]

Quote:

0.1dB is bloody hard to achieve.  Your headphones drivers are no where near that well matched and you probably don't prefer one side to the other  I've had some as far out as 2dB that most couldn't notice.  But short of a dB metre, I have one, use the gain switch.

 
1 dB is generally considered to be noticeable in an AB comparison. If you get a positive result doing a comparison using the gain switch you really can't rely on it.

 

[Solude]

1v x 10 = 10v
 
1v x 5 + 1v x 5 = 10v
 
It's math, it's a lot more reliable than your ear.  You can disagree I guess, but I don't see it.  Change the input to whatever you want, the outputs will match within the tolerance of the parts, probably 1% or worse case 0.1025dB IN FAVOUR OF BALANCED

 

[ehlarson]

Quote:

1v x 10 = 10v
 
1v x 5 + 1v x 5 = 10v
 
It's math, it's a lot more reliable than your ear.  You can disagree I guess, but I don't see it.  Change the input to whatever you want, the outputs will match within the tolerance of the parts, probably 1% or worse case 0.1025dB IN FAVOUR OF BALANCED

 
My bad. For some reason I thought the gain switch difference spec was 5dB. I just rechecked and it's 6dB.
 
While math is seriously cool (I make my living using it), the results are only as good as the numbers you start with. 1% tolerance on parts may or may not be 1% error in a real circuit.
 
Small differences have a long history of being important. 
 
[size=medium]To us, on whom Divine benevolence has bestowed the most diligent of observers, Tycho Brahe, from whose observations this eight-minute error of Ptolemy's in regard to Mars is deduced, it is fitting that we accept with grateful minds this gift from God, and both acknowledge and build upon it. So let us work upon it so as to at last track down the real form of celestial motions (these arguments giving support to our belief that the assumptions are incorrect). This is the path I shall, in my own way, strike out in what follows. For if I thought the eight minutes in [ecliptic] longitude were unimportant, I could make a sufficient correction (by bisecting the [linear] eccentricity) to the hypothesis found in Chapter 16. Now, because they could not be disregarded, these eight minutes alone will lead us along a path to the reform of the whole of Astronomy, and they are the matter for a great part of this work. [/size][size=medium][/size]
[size=medium]Astronomia nova[/size][size=medium] ([/size][size=medium]New Astronomy, Johannes [/size][size=medium]Kepler, Heidelberg, 1609) Chapter 19, 113 - 14, KGW [/size][size=medium]3[/size][size=medium] 177 -78.[/size]

 

[Chris J]

Quote:

 
I am sure he would like them all.
 
J R Pierce in the sig is a link to a Wikipedia page. Interesting guy. Coinventor of PCM, was Bardeen Brattain and Shockley's supervisor. Invented the word "transistor". Directed the program to build the first communications satellite. Etc etc etc.
 
We owe a lot to him.

 
Interesting link.
Funny, Shannon and Shockley are fairly well known, but Pierce?
Never heard anything about him until I read your link.
Thanks.
 
BTW, it is my opinion that hard core objectivists are guys who care nothing for small differences, where hard core subjectivists make too much out of them

 

[longbowbbs]

Quote:

 
Interesting link.
Funny, Shannon and Shockley are fairly well known, but Pierce?
Never heard anything about him until I read your link.
Thanks.
 
BTW, it is my opinion that hard core objectivists are guys who care nothing for small differences, where hard core subjectivists make too much out of them

Crap...Late for Physics class again....

 

[R-Audiohead]

Anyone tried mismatching the inputs and outputs to see if they hear a subjective difference?  Just curious.
 
Also, I'm aware about this amp running hot.  Bad idea to stack my DAC on top of it?  It will have rubber feet that will give it a few mm of lift