[jonathanwb]

Hi... I have an Audient iD22 with balanced outs. My headphones are Senn HD6xx. Last week I bought a Topping L30 II and I'm liking the improvement over the iD22 HP amp. I've recently learned that I have the option of running the iD22 balanced outs into a balanced HP amp, and possibly changing the HD6xx cable to a balanced one.

I'm using this setup in a Pro Tools mixing environment. Honestly, I'm not caught up in the "balanced vs unbalanced" opinion war but since I have the option to do so, would you suggest I make the change?

(the L30 II is still returnable, the Topping L50 would be my choice)

 

[dunring]

I'd stick with the L30 II because of it's epic silent noise floor. Balanced has more current to let you stay in low/med gain longer, and the connector is better for interference resistance, but in most homes it's not going to help. I've had the L30 II on a Topping E50 with RCA and connected with optical, and the amp is just amazing. RCA has been used for decades and it's proven, don't break the bank switching over. I use a Topping A30 Pro and D10B combo with balanced, but audibly when I get an L30 II or JDS Atom + in for the business, I couldn't pass a blind, volume matched test to tell one from the other.

 

[jonathanwb]

Yeah you're right the L30 II is a remarkable amp. The Audient has an Optical out and I had thought about running that into an E30+L30 II combo or a DX3pro. Audient support said they wouldn't recommend it "unless the headphone amp itself has a significant improvement over the DACs inside the iD22" Given that the iD22 is almost 10 years old, I'd assume the Topping DACs are superior. The Dynamic range of the iD22 is 120dB so it's still in the game. Thanks for your response and suggestion.