someone explain balanced cables and adapters?

[taetertot]

Some questions:
 
1) Are balanced cables simply a function of what connector you choose? Or is the whole length of the cable built from ground-up to be balanced?
 
2) How do adapters work? I am guessing you cannot use an adapter to go from single-ended to balanced. But you can use an adapter to convert a balanced to single-ended, right? So if I ordered a set of cables with a Hifiman 3.5mm TRRS connector, and then bought something like this http://www.scansound.com/index.php/4-conductor-trrs-to-3-conductor-trs-3-5mm-adapter.html...
 

 
...then I could use these balanced cables as a single-ended?
 
3) Are all 3.5mm TRRS and 2.5mm TRRS connectors interchangeable? Because I see different options, like 2.5mm TRRS comes in Sony or A&K, 3.5mm TRRS comes in Hifiman or LH Labs, etc. Like if you go to Norne Audio there's a bunch of different TRRS connector options.
 
 
 
I'm wondering, if I buy fairly expensive cables like Draug v2, whether it might make sense to go with a balanced connector and then buy a couple of adapters to convert between 2.5mm TRRS and 3.5mm TRRS, as well as convert to a 1/4" single ended.

 

[Speedskater]

Skipping the TRS to TRRS question for the moment.
It's not about just a balanced cable, it's a balanced interconnect system.
That is:
Balanced output stage >> balanced cable >> balanced input stage.
Without all three, it's not balanced.
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A TRS connector/cable can be either:
a mono balanced cable
a stereo unbalanced cable
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I'll pass on a TRRS cable
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An unbalanced output to a balanced input is a good thing.
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A balanced output to a unbalanced input, is still unbalanced.

 

[Runding99]

Hey everyone,

Sorry to revive an old post but I'm also curious on this.

I recently purchased a FiiO X7 ii and would like to use the extra amp power out of the balanced output.

Purchased a 2.5mm 4 pole male to 3.5mm female adapter to use with my existing headphones(regular head phones are 3 pole?). Is there risks involved with using this?

Any help on this would be much appreciated and apologize in advance for being uninformed on this subject. This is my first dabble with anything with balanced capabilities.

 

[Fred Wang]

My understanding is that that adapter might damage your source or headphones.

If you had a headphone with a balanced cable, you could convert it to unbalanced, but going the other way is usually to be avoided.

I'm not super technical, however, so if someone else could chime in about why it's bad, that might be more helpful.

 

[Oscar-HiFi]

Hey everyone,

Sorry to revive an old post but I'm also curious on this.

I recently purchased a FiiO X7 ii and would like to use the extra amp power out of the balanced output.

Purchased a 2.5mm 4 pole male to 3.5mm female adapter to use with my existing headphones(regular head phones are 3 pole?). Is there risks involved with using this?

Any help on this would be much appreciated and apologize in advance for being uninformed on this subject. This is my first dabble with anything with balanced capabilities.

Don't do this as you may damage your amp.

You cannot simply connect single ended headphones to a balanced output like that. You can however plug balanced headphones into a single ended amp with adaptors no problem.

Also you won't benefit from the balanced output by using an adaptor like that. The whole point in going balanced is that the signal is kept separate throughout the whole device - L+/L-/R+/R- are all separate. A regular 3 pole has L/R/-

 

[Runding99]

Thanks so much Fred and Oscar for the help on this and very thankful for the input on this subject. What i understand from combing through various threads, going from a 4 pole balanced to a SE headphone via an adapter creates a ground loop which can short out components which is unfortunate but makes sense.