[steinba]

I have a Senn HD650 with a cardas cable, and I'm gonna be building a PPAv2 soon. I have a M Audio Audiophile sound card with balanced TRS outputs. Would it be a good idea to put dual TRS connectors on the original hd650 cable and use it with the 650s straight out of the sound card for a cheap way to sample the 650s balanced?

 

[Garbz]

That may work, but chances are that the output of the soundcard is too weak probably being a line out not amplified from the DAC. You can always try it.

 

[blip]

If I had balanced outputs on any of my sources, I'd try it. It's definitely worth a shot... If not you could probably build a simple balanced amp for it... Like a balance-moy or something.

Edit: Something like what AMB shows here: http://www6.head-fi.org/forums/showt...=balanced+Cmoy

 

[Ikon]

A soundcard certainly doesn't deliver enough voltage for a 300Ohm headphone.

Your options are: amped+unbalanced and unamped/balanced -> I should think that the first one delivers significantly more sound quality.
I would be keen to compare balanced vs. unbalanced directly from the soundcard, though.

 

[steinba]

Of course I'd primarily be using the unbalanced PPA to drive the 650's with the cardas cable, but thought it could be fun/worthwhile to have a taste of "balanced" by using the standard 650 cable and a couple of TRS jacks straight out of the osund card's balanced outputs.