[TjPhysicist]

From what i'm told this is impossible, or at best a terrible idea (you can't decouple ground from a SE heapdhone). But uhh, i'm seeing a surprising amount of cables like these: http://a.co/bjqynfC . These are bad cables right, like generally a terrible idea? What exactly happens if you TRY to plug in a single ended heapdhones not wired ofr balanced into a balanced jack? (lot of people i know in audio tell me "don't do it, it's a terrible idea")

 

[ProtegeManiac]

(lot of people i know in audio tell me "don't do it, it's a terrible idea")

That's because it is.

Balanced amps have a separate NEG circuit on each channel while SE has a shared GND on both each channels.

As much as it's more dangerous to get two POS terminals, that's because on some speaker amps for example they actually have a shared ground, which is why the NEG terminals are right next to each other. On a balanced amp they tend to put each terminal pair farther apart, if not put each channel on a separate circuit board.