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Balanced or Unbalanced?

Hi-end should be about as few compromises as one's budget will allow.

It's a shame (or a conspiracy) that hi-end mags do not educate us on the basics, such as unbalanced circuit designs vs differentially balanced designs and XLR connectors/connections vs XLR connectors/connections and their relative impact on music playback. Why do I mention "conspiracy"? Magazines seem reluctant to bite the hand that feeds them- the majority of manufacturers are still in the dark ages selling unbalanced gear. Why? It seems you can't teach an old dog new tricks.

Hi-end roots are based in unbalanced designs. When the few differentially balanced designs (XLR) first appeared on the market, they were too expensive for most of us. Today, several manufacturers offer XLR designs that are competitively priced with unbalanced designs.

Think about it, sharing the L/R signal on circuit boards and through parts cannot be a good thing. Adding insult to injury is the RCA connector. A system is only as good as it's weakest link and this is the RCA connection. In response, several manufacturers have improved the RCA connector, but to what ultimate result? You can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig.

Reviewers (and I blame this on editors) typically allow balanced components to be reviewed within the confines of an unbalanced system. See The Absolute Sound August issue review of the Raysonic 168. Consequently, we are not informed on the components' ultimate sonic value.

If you are on a quest for best sound, begin to replace your RCA based components with differentially balanced. Most will accommodate RCAs or just buy RCA/XLR adapters until you fully transition.
tweak1

Showing 2 responses by lupinthe3rd

lupinthe3rd
47 posts
 
The whole point to balanced connections is noise rejection, yes? So what if your listening environment has very low RFI / EMI noise to begin with? And all your cable lengths are short (1M max), and all your cables are shielded?

I don't see the value to balanced interconnects unless you're talking long cable runs of many meters, or high electrical noise environments.

Obviously, listening is a subjective thing, but my unbalanced system has the deepest blackest silence I've heard. Crank the volume on the amp to maximum and you still can't hear *any* noise from the speakers from just 10 cm away!!
lupinthe3rd
47 posts
 
Eliminating common mode interference is the only advantage to balanced connections. If you have no common mode interference, there is no advantage to balanced interconnects, period. I agree that balanced is better than unbalanced on general principle, and given the choice, I will always use balanced. But the reality is that balanced increases cost significantly, it nearly doubles the component cost of a DAC, with dubious benefit in a residential environment.

Pro audio equipment is always balanced because it uses long cable runs (on a performance stage, for example) that can act as an antenna and introduce RFI. And lots of high current electronics and power cords everywhere that can introduce EMI. Also very very high db volume levels where even the tiniest noise will be amplified to audible levels.

For small room hi-fi listening, short cable runs, and moderate residential volume levels, it just doesn't make a big difference in sound quality whether you use balanced or unbalanced.
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