it being balanced doesn't make it better than a good single ended amp.
All things other things being equal, yeah, balanced is better.
It has better noise rejection. And it's better able to drive long cable runs with less interferance if you want to also use active monitors (which often have XLR connectors).
Balanced is not some BS snake oil, although it's often over-kill for home use.
I'm not saying balanced is wrong, I'm saying shortcuts like "balanced is better" is like "tube amps are low fi", or "more power sounds better". it's not relevant. good and bad amps come in all designs and the signal coming out should be what matters.
I happen to have my active monitors balanced but they're not headphones
cheers, first time ive ever heard of a crossfeed plug in, ill get googling. ive always shied away from eq, the pessimist in me always tells me im distorting and going against the sound the headphones and dac designers want to produce... any advice on diving in to eq greatly appreciated, Lee
it's a choice, I've always been of the opinion that my headphones weren't neutral and even if one claimed to be, I would still need to correct for my own head to benefit from really hearing a neutral sound. and even subjectively when I'm only after some fun, again it's very rare when I find a headphone to have my preferred signature unEQed. there is always a little something that I'll prefer, even if it's in the end a very minute change.
so other people might have other opinions on the matter, headfi is full of people who's religion forbid them to use any sort of DSP. I wouldn't try to go against personal faith. I just happen to have spent more on my EQ than on my headphone amp.
this might give a starting direction. http://www.head-fi.org/t/830852/eq-software-for-beginner-for-laptop-computer#post_13138864
also if you don't feel like spending too much time learning how to EQ for your own sound, you can turn toward solutions such as sonarwork. there is a demo so for 0$ you might want to try ^_^. and there is a dedicated thread in here http://www.head-fi.org/t/762969/sonarworks-headphone-calibration-software with one of the sonarwork guys answering questions fairly often. basically they have what they think is the right EQ for specific headphones and can even measure your own headphone if you send one to them(to correct channel imbalance in the signature for example). trying is the right thing to do as you can't know in advance if their target response will be what you like. (as in , their neutral might not be your neutral). but they do a fairly good job at making the sound feel fairly even IMO.
there is this too http://www.head-fi.org/t/832543/tonebooster-morphit-correct-your-headphones-frequency-response-simulate-other-famous-headphones-and-more , same basic principle as sonarwork, but I saw it yesterday and haven't made time to try it yet. tonebooster has a lot of stuff as VST lie the TB isone suite that are fun to play with.
as for crossfeed, depending on your preferences and your own head, it can be hit or miss with the preset stuff that are available as VST (you usually can put them as plug in in your audio player if it allows for it, just like most EQ). the purpose is to send the sound from the left channel to the right with a delay and attenuated in a certain way to mimic how the sound from left channel would have reached the right ear with speakers. it's to make for a slightly more natural way to perceive an album mastered for speakers(almost all albums). so the concept is great on principle, but the change in signature and delay for the signal sent to the other side is 100% dependent on your own head, because that's what you'll have to mimic to fool your brain correctly. so the preset stuff out there may simply not work for you.
so again the best choice is to try a bunch and hope that one will feel right.
the "I've gone mad" solution is something like the Smyth Realiser. it creates HRIR, so EQ timing and more, head tracking, the all package to mimic the sound of your speakers. but that might not be what you're after. I personally prefer speakers to headphones, so of course I feel like it's the way to go. but it's merely my preference.
IMO all those stuff can improve the listening experience in a meaningful way when it's done well. but maybe that's not the kind of improvement/change you're after ^_^.
