SmokeNMirrorz
New Head-Fier
Maybe I don't get it but how is it single ended output? I thought by definition that if the output is not sharing grounds its balanced. How can two separate amps share grounds? Sure if I ran both left and right off of ONE amp it would be single ended as the channels would share grounds. But I am not doing that and the grounds aren't commo
To answer your question, I bother with this setup for a few reasons:
1. 1st off vc is handled by my dac which has a line out controlled by a nice big volume knob. The amps are set to mono and max volume and never touched, so no calibration needed.
2. It sounds better with 2. The background is blacker and the separation is better. Seems to have more drive.
3. Its battery powered! This helps with the clarity and well having each amp amplifying only one channel means the batteries last longer...
4. Because there are 2 inputs and a balance control between each input, I can connect 2 sources without swapping headphones between amps. If I used one of these, I would just have one source.
No hungry cans here. All can run easily off a phone but sound better off the 2 amps.
See here for how balanced cabling works:
https://www.boxcast.com/blog/balanced-vs.-unbalanced-audio-whats-the-difference
1. This maximizes gain of your noise floor and minimize your S/N but might make the amp more linear in its response depending on chips and architecture, etc. Though this is generally done for B- classed power amps. Pre/ headphone amps should already be extremely linear across their operating range.
2. Those Beringer's may also have an issue with crosstalk this solves going dual mono. You get 3dB more headroom of drive, yes but blacker seems contrary to 1.
3. Your driving more electronics with 2x more heat loss. Your runtime increases but your power efficiency drops notably. You'll need more batteries to get trough a day. Clarity might decrease if the batteries sag or get low if there's less current readily available and boost circuits have limited inductive capacity. Noise floor might improve on batteries but if audible (your at max gain) on power then the amp has poor filtering and design.
4. Handy but hardly difficult to swap a couple patches.
There's a reason you don't see headphones setup like this. The gains are modest and the losses are notable. But if you like the sound and operation then just enjoy the music!
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