Lol I didn't say the SE was weak, I'm just saying the consensus is the balanced sounds noticeably better than the SE. My point is why buy an expensive dap to use with Bluetooth??? Especially when Sony supposedly put a lot into the balanced output section that you're not even going to use.
And my point was that with some phones the balanced should sound better because it can supply more power. I didn't mean to doubt that. I would buy theZX300 for other features even if it didn't have a balanced output. Actually Apt-X HD and LDAC are pretty important to me. Both are as good as or better than a CD and I don't ask for more out of a portable system. Remember this is for noise reducing headphones in an airplane, train or car. If I were traveling with better headphones you would be right that I will be wasting what appears to be one of the strengths of the ZX300--eg, the balanced out. At the end of the day the balanced output is wasted on my specific use. You are right about that. But the unit has other good features I want. As often happens, to get some features you want, you end up buying others you don't want. They could have saved some money and omitted the MQA which I will never use and which I believe is a technically flawed means to create yet another kind of DRM. But hey, MQA is a big advertising plus right now so everything new will have it.
Lol yes you put the oscilloscope on it and look at the waveforms, of course there will be a difference. But you really need an audio analyser to get any semi meaningful data.