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Balanced outputs vs balanced design

Friends, I am looking for a balanced tube pre to mate with Halcro MC20. I have since learned that there are single ended designs with balanced outputs and fully balanced designs, like the BAT's. In a response to a thread below the author suggests that the "magic" happens in the amp and that the pre does not have to be fully balanced to benefit from the noise reduction qualitites. If so, is thre any inherent advantage to a fully balanced preanp? And more particularly for my purposes which would not run connects more than 10' from the amp. If there is no great advantage to a fully balanced pre, I can widen my search. As always, tell me about your favorite tube pres to run with this SS amp. Many thanks.
deliberate1

Showing 2 responses by jmcgrogan2

jmcgrogan2's avatar
jmcgrogan2
6,346 posts
 
I second Wwshull's comments. If your amp is fully differential, you will not be getting the most out of it unless your whole chain is fully differential as well (source and preamp). You cannot re-create what has been eliminated.
FWIW, my personal favorite fully balanced preamp is the ARC Ref 3.

Cheers,
John
jmcgrogan2's avatar
jmcgrogan2
6,346 posts
 
11-18-07: Jrw40
im wondering if a set-up offers single ended and balanced ins and outs can it be fully balanced?


Can it be fully balanced? Yes
Does having balanced in's and out's mean it has to be fully balanced? No.

Some manufacturers offer balanced inputs and outputs for convienience, but they tie the negative (-) leg to ground inside the chassis and have single ended internal circuitry, not that there's anything wrong with that. However, the appearance of XLR connectors on the rear apron of the unit does not necessarily mean it is a fully differential unit. For it to be fully differential, it must have mirror interior circuitry for both the positive AND negative legs. This can become pretty expensive, and the results are not always audible. Hence I would say that most equipment is single ended, though some single ended gear will have balanced inputs/outputs.

There is little technical info on the internet about Cairn gear, but from what I can find, it looks to be a single ended design with optional balanced inputs and outputs.

Cheers,
John
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