Differential from source to pre but not amp?

Yes, there can be plenty of benefit! Differential circuits are not only lower noise, but lower distortion due to distortion cancellation at each stage of gain, compared to single-ended circuits of otherwise similar topology. When you reduce noise or distortion, due to the masking effect of the human ear, detail is revealed.

There is also a simple method of modifying any single-ended amplifier to accept a balanced signal in the differential domain, without using a transformer and not just simply adding an XLR connector. It is also inexpensive to do.

Sure, I understand the general benefits of balanced connections, but I've heard that these benefits are canceled out if you don't go fully balanced from source to amp. Can anyone tell me if this is true, or is my understanding flawed?

Thanks again.

Balanced connections will considerably reduce susceptibility to ground loop issues and to noise pickup, regardless of whether the internal signal paths in the components are balanced or not. However, those benefits will be unnecessary in many setups. Also, some components that provide balanced interfaces but have unbalanced internal signal paths implement the conversion between balanced and unbalanced by means of an active stage which may be less than the best sonically, and may in some cases provide inferior results compared to bypassing that stage by using unbalanced connections.

Regards,
-- Al

Balanced from pre-amp to amp gives you much of the "benefit" of balanced circuitry. The source component is not as critical - IME.

"...some components that provide balanced interfaces but have unbalanced internal signal paths implement the conversion between balanced and unbalanced by means of an active stage which may be less than the best sonically, and may in some cases provide inferior results compared to bypassing that stage by using unbalanced connections."

I know for sure that the transport, dac and the preamp I'm considering all have internal differential circuitry making them truly balanced, so I'm safe in this regard.

Balanced from pre-amp to amp gives you much of the "benefit" of balanced circuitry. The source component is not as critical"

Ah, thank you, this is exactly what I'm wondering. So, with this in mind, I might as well save some scratch and go with the less expensive preamp.

Thanks for your thoughts, everyone, and please feel free to lay some more interconnect knowledge on me.

Best,
Alex

By the way, in my last post, "Balanced from pre-amp to amp gives you much of the "benefit" of balanced circuitry. The source component is not as critical" was supposed to be in quotes to set it off from the rest of the post. Just thought I'd mention that in case anyone was confused by the strange non sequitur. (too bad we can't edit our posts on this forum)

An added bonus of fully balanced differential operation, is that the interconnect cables variations are less noticeable than running SE. Meaning that many of the high $$ RCA style cables sound differences are negated when running balanced (probably due to the lower impedance interactions)This allows the use of more garden variety cables -like Mogami and Canare which sound wonderful in true balanced but much less so when used single ended.

I should point out that to take advantage of the ability of balanced lines to be immune to the cost and length of the cable, the source driving the cable should conform to the balanced standard.

If not, you may be able to run the balanced connection but still be subject to the sound of the cable itself. The whole point behind the creation of the balanced line system was to prevent the interconnect cable from having an effect on the sound.

Keep in mind also that in high end audio, the balanced standard is not understood or recognized by a good number of players that offer balanced products. In the case of preamps, most solid state preamps do support the standard, but to the best of my knowledge, only 2 tube preamps support it, and both are made by the same manufacturer.

"Rischa
Ah, thank you, this is exactly what I'm wondering. So, with this in mind, I might as well save some scratch and go with the less expensive preamp."

Right, so just stick with single ended all the way thru with your solid state system.

Interconnects,

XLR from pre-amp to amp, one can still easily hear if a cable is capable of higher resolution vs another cable. (among other sonic attributes)

XLR from source to pre-amp, not easy to find a good sonic match. I find that I usually prefer single ended cables from the source. Much more sonic variety to chose from.