Well..my balanced cable from LQi eventually arrived; not because of LQi, it's just ****ty customs in my country. I've been listening through the balanced output of this thing. And well, I mean:
It doesn't make sense, whatever little thing I know about physics tells me the sound has no reason to improve with a cable or balanced headphones. Maybe it's the extra power each headphone is getting, maybe it's confirmation bias, maybe it's my brain getting messed up looking for improvements where there are none. Whatever it is, when I hear my IEM with this, they don't sound like IEM. The sound feels "out of my head", not live performance "out of my head". But, It doesn't feel like it's coming from something wedged inside my ears. It's noticeable, it's there, I can't ignore it. More details, the bass it's still...settling.
I've noticed some other things when I turn on the WM1A, and the balanced output is connected, I hear a faint mechanical clicking noise coming out of the device. I'm not worried about it, it's just that didn't happen with SE output. There's also a tidbit that I find...odd. While connected to the balanced output; whenever I switch back and forth from a song that's FLAC 24 bit, to a 16 bit song or a 320 kps song (save it!) I hear a quick crackling noise on the headphones; not mechanical emanating from the device, but..."digital". That wasn't before on the SE output. One thing I really like about the switch to balanced is that the noise floor is gone; or at least, so low I can't tell it apart anymore.
On the SE output, before going to bed when everything is silent and on a particular quiet part of a song, I could feel a faint hiss on the headphones. That hiss is gone on balanced output. So far I'm loving the things I've gained on this thing on the balanced output. Maybe with more burn in time on the balanced output, the other things I've gained will go away.
Mandatory glamour shot:
(Boy, am I glad I don't make a living out of photography, otherwise I wouldn't be able to afford to feed my self)