[DMinor]

  Balanced cans are definitely the way forward for portable rigs.
I agree with all you say about the improvements you listed. 
Ive had Frank make me up a balanced White Widow for my Amperiors and like you say, 
The difference really is night & day!
 
 

 
How do you take advantage of balanced cans without balanced DAC (i.e. the ipod shown in your setup)?

 

[Kojaku]

   
How do you take advantage of balanced cans without balanced DAC (i.e. the ipod shown in your setup)?

A lot of modern portable amplifiers have single ended inputs and use a phase splitter to achieve balanced output.
 
Kojaku

 

[Chui]

May I ask what case your are using?

 

[karloil]

 
received both yesterday...Christmas came a bit late for me

 
 

 

[DMinor]

  A lot of modern portable amplifiers have single ended inputs and use a phase splitter to achieve balanced output.
 
Kojaku

 
Interesting. I need to dig and hopefully mod one myself to find out what all the fuss is about.
 
Can you list a few of these modern amps implemented with a phase splitter?  Thanks

 

[DMinor]

 
 
received both yesterday...Christmas came a bit late for me

 
 
 

 
Looks really neat and nice. Merry Christmas!

 

[skalkman]

   
Interesting. I need to dig and hopefully mod one myself to find out what all the fuss is about.
 
Can you list a few of these modern amps implemented with a phase splitter?  Thanks

More or less all of the portable balanced amps you can get your hands on today are using some kind of phase splitting circuitry.
Pick one out of the more-talked-about bunch here on Head-Fi.

 

[DMinor]

  More or less all of the portable balanced amps you can get your hands on today are using some kind of phase splitting circuitry.
Pick one out of the more-talked-about bunch here on Head-Fi.

 
I see. I thought there are balanced amps designed specifically for unbalanced DAC's.

 

[Punnisher]

 
 
received both yesterday...Christmas came a bit late for me

 
 
 

I love this player. The line out is direct from the DAC, so you need caps, but the sound is phenomenal. It makes the current ipod classic sound grainy and congested in comparison.

 

[Kojaku]

   
I see. I thought there are balanced amps designed specifically for unbalanced DAC's.

Among the amps that can cake single-ended input and output balanced are:
 
-RSA Intruder, F-35
-iBasso Pelican PB2
-Alo Audio Rx MKIII-B, Alo International
 
Just be aware that you won't be getting the benefits of dedicated grounds because the signal will have crosstalk in your DAP.
 
Kojaku 

 

[DMinor]

  Among the amps that can cake single-ended input and output balanced are:
 
-RSA Intruder, F-35
-iBasso Pelican PB2
-Alo Audio Rx MKIII-B, Alo International
 
Just be aware that you won't be getting the benefits of dedicated grounds because the signal will have crosstalk in your DAP.
 
Kojaku 

 
That's why I was wondering how you can take advantage of balanced cans without balanced DAC, as shown in this post.

 

[Kojaku]

   
That's why I was wondering how you can take advantage of balanced cans without balanced DAC, as shown in this post.

It's really to lower distortion in the amp section, presuming that the line-out is hopefully less-distorted already. At least in the ipod setup anyway.
 
Kojaku

 

[Cotnijoe]

I think at this point all RSA balanced amp has the phase splitter. That's including protector SR 71B and intruder. Besides those, the only ones i know of that also has the splitter is the iBasso PB2

 

[DMinor]

  I think at this point all RSA balanced amp has the phase splitter. That's including protector SR 71B and intruder. Besides those, the only ones i know of that also has the splitter is the iBasso PB2

 
The good thing about PB2 is it takes/provides balanced and single end inputs/outputs. That may be a good candidate for experiment.

 

[ButtUglyJeff]

   
The good thing about PB2 is it takes/provides balanced and single end inputs/outputs. That may be a good candidate for experiment.

 
I'm just not sure if your cap-less iMod would play nice with an iBasso or RSA amp...