[spierdolony]

Hi Guys,

I have read about people using balanced XLR cables with HD650s. I understand the benefits of using balanced cables for eliminating noise between components, however I don't understand how it's possible to use them for speaker/headphone cable. Can someone explain to me or link me to a resource that explains this?

I own HD580's and an emu 0404 USB soundcard, the 0404 has 1/4" TRS balanced outputs. Can I modify a cable to drive my headphones from these balanced outputs?
Will this improve or change sound quality?
Does this output have enough juice to power headphones at all or is it only sufficient to send signal to a balanced input on an amp?

I have googled and searched this forum and haven't quite got the answers I was looking for. Hopefully someone can shed some light.

Cheers,

 

[musicman59]

I can not speak about how your soundcard works but in a headphone amplifier with balanced outputs (XLR) you have a positive singal with voltage and a negative signal that actually is the positive voltage signal but inverted.

Due to this the headphones voicecoil is receving double the voltage. The positive signal controls 1/2 of the coil and the negative the other have. As result you have better control of the coil resulting in better sound.

I used to have a pair of HD650 and I can tell you that the difference in sound between Single Ended connection and balanced is huge. The sound got cleaner and more hologaphic and the soundstage expanded providing a very nice presentation.

I have not seen balanced headphones amps with 2 TRS outputs but I guess it is possible using 2 mono TRS (one per channel) instead of XLR becuase onthe XLR connector you are actually using just 2 of the pins (2 and 3). So in a TRS you use the Tip and the sleeve for the positive and Negative.

In order to take god advantage of the potential of your headphones I think you need a headphone amplifier to drive them istead f directly from the soundcard. The more power, the more control and better resolution.

 

[spierdolony]

Thanks that explained things really well.

I will research the emu and see if the TRS outs use the same amp as the 3.5mm stereo out and thus have enough juice for headphones. If it does then I might try to put some TRS ends on a cable and see what happens.

If it doesn't which is most likely a dedicated amp is the obvious choice.

Cheers

 

[scompton]

musicman, the EMU 0404 USB is a DAC/ADC that has 2 line outs. One is a 1/8" TRS jack and the other is 2 jacks that can take either TS plugs for unbalanced or TRS plugs for balanced. I'm not sure exactly how it works, but this is what's in the documentation. It also says the balanced output is twice the voltage of the unbalanced, which reinforces that it's balanced. There is a pot to control the line out level.

spierdolony, there was a thread by Tomb that showed that it doesn't use the same circuit for both outputs. The output level control is confusing you. It's just to adjust line level down if you need to for what ever reason. Since it's line level, it shouldn't be able to drive you Senns. You need to feed it into a balanced amp. The only amp in the EMU is a single ended headphone amp.