Balanced usage with Opus 21


Hello All,
I've had my Opus 21 now for a couple months and love it to death. I'm NOT using the balanced outs as my MFa308cr only has RCA's. Could an Opus 21 user advise me as to what difference I'll hear if I get an amp with balanced inputs (yes, I know there is going to be a difference regardless because it will be a different amp) versus using RCA's?

Mucho thanks,
Tgyeti .... just Tgyeti
tgyeti

Showing 2 responses by philnyc

Distortion...I don't believe that to be true. I'm sure the Opus 21 uses all 4 DACs (2 per channel) regardless of which outputs you use.

Brrgrr...I would guess that it's a function of the Opus 21 being fully balanced in its design.
The balanced outs will definitely give you better performance than the RCAs, although how much you'll notice will depend on how easily you hear changes in your system. It is not a "OMG, it takes it to a whole new level" kind of difference, but a subtle improvement in clarity.

Whether the DIN output will be better than the balanced outs will depend on the quality of the cable you can find with a DIN option. I compared an Audience AU24 DIN-RCA cable (into a Neutrik RCA-XLR adaptor into my balanced preamp) against Au24 XLR interconnects and found the performance of the DIN output to be better. Changing that to an Audience Conductor DIN-RCA cable, the Au24 XLR inteconnects performed better.