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Balanced vs. unbalanced

The way I understand it, in most devices except phone cartridge output, the signal is in a combined state (unseparated) and to get it to balanced, it has to go through another set of circuitry to separate the signals into balanced componenets for the XLR output. Whereas the RCA output does not go through the additional circuitry. And at the other end (e.g., my Krell) it has to go through the reverse process to recombine the signal.

In other words keeping the signal on the unblanced RCA path results in a circuit path with fewer components. Thoughts?

regards, David
wireless200

Showing 1 response by unclejeff

unclejeff
1,313 posts
 
I prefer to stay with the design of the system. If the components are not truly balanced to begin with then I try to stick with RCA connectors.

I go with the alternative balanced connections when I am running the signal to a secondary listening area as this is the only alternative since my pre has only one set of RCA and another set of outputs that is balanced.

In reality there are very few sets of components that are truly balanced to begin with.
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