Balanced vs RCA preamps

It’s a red herring, really and you’ve already acknowledged that AES48 is not commonly accepted in home audio. You describe your MP-1 preamp as "featuring Balanced Differential Design®" and state it’s "still one of the very few preamps to support the balanced standard (AES48)." You then go on to insist that only AES48-compliant designs are "proper" balanced designs.

@cleeds How is that a red herring?? The topic of this thread is "Balanced vs RCA preamps" so my comments about balanced operation are relevant.

I do describe the MP-1 and the MP-3 in that manner. I’ve described other high end preamps in that manner too. 

The emphasis added bit is false.

Nor am I claiming they are The One True Way (in fact listed a couple of other ways including links in prior posts which you seem to be ignoring) nor did I say any competing balanced line product isn’t ’proper’. Please stop trying to put words in my mouth; when you do so you commit a logical fallacy called a Strawman; logical fallicies are false by definition...

Regarding the use of ’proper’ I was talking about driving a balanced line ’properly’. I didn’t say anything about some balanced line product not being proper. Do you get the distinction??

Again, for like the 4th time already(!), this is what I claim:

if AES48 is not supported, then you loose a lot of the benefit that balanced line operation offers: immunity to ground loops and reduced or non-existent cable coloration/interaction issues (this being the ’cable makes a difference’ phenomena).

Nowhere in that is any comment about anyone’s particular balanced preamp or the like. Its a simple statement about balanced lines themselves.

One only has to open up their equipment in order to determine if true balanced, mirrored circuit path, power supplies,power and output transformers, my Coincident Statement even has dual transformer volume control. Also true balanced pre's used with true balanced sources such as dacs may offer even greater beneifits, pseudo XLR inputs on pre may in fact be inferior to single ended inputs such that using the superior balanced outputs on dac may be compromised.

@atmasphere 

Your patience in addressing the posts written by one member above is commendable.  Your posts are among the most interesting and informative on this site.

@rwwear That is indeed the common myth.

I'll add that the name contributes to the popularity among those having to make a choice with limited info.  Balanced sounds like a good thing to most people.

Jerry

sns

One only has to open up their equipment in order to determine if true balanced, mirrored circuit path, power supplies,power and output transformers ...

That depends. Many truly balanced amplifiers do not use "mirrored circuit paths." For example, you can build balanced circuits using differential amplifiers.

As for @atmasphere, he simply won't accept that his opinion that the only proper way to build a balanced component is to make it consistent with the AES48 standard is simply his opinion. It's one that most of the high end community has rejected but he disputes that too, arguing that maybe they've never heard of the "standard." Those are the simple facts and I'll grant him the last word.