Just got a new power amp


Just received a PS Audio S300 to pair up with my Linn streamer.  They are only about a foot apart.  PS Audio recommends XLR cables.  Will I notice any difference if I go with the XLR over good quality RCA connections?

Currently running RCA and gotta say it sounds phenomenal.

rjinaz86323

@kijanki Its hard to know what Emotiva is talking about since there appears to be a typo or complete misunderstanding of what is happening in the opening sentence of the quote of the description; power amps do not drive the input, if you see what I'm talking about. A preamp might do that though...

Anyway, IMO/IME your definition is a bit too restrictive. Our OTLs are an example that flies in the face of it and are one of the oldest fully balanced differential amplifier designs in production. 

Fully Balanced configuration (as I call it), doubles the circuitry (cost), with little benefits (other than high output power)

This statement is false if the circuit is also differential. You do have more parts but not double. Depending on the gain of the circuit the CMRR can be quite high. 

There are amps that are fully balanced but not differential. I see no advantage to them at all, since they often offer no CMRR and do indeed have double the parts. 

Apparently Douglas Self doesn't know about our stuff since he makes the claim at the link you provided:

To my knowledge these are the first, high power, full balanced amplifiers with feedback from the input to the speaker terminal in high volume production.

We've been doing exactly that for 40 years although its been with tubes, but he might be right depending on what is meant be 'high volume production'.

Now if you want, you can build a conventional tube amplifier using a differential Voltage amplifier and transformer coupled push-pull output. In fact that is exactly how our little Gem integrated amplifier works (it only makes 5 Watts/channel, meant for headphone, bedroom or desktop use, but you could use it in a main system with high efficiency speakers). 

Depending on how you execute the ground at the output, you could have balanced feedback loops or single-ended. Yet the amp is fully differential and balanced from input to output. 

I really think you need to expand your definition, since as you have stated it so far makes a good deal of your arguments false, for example the bit 

like transformer or instrumentation amp, followed by two amplifiers - each for one leg/phase of the signal.  Speaker is connected between outputs of both amplifiers. 

This statement would only be true if the word 'amplifier' meant only a single-ended circuit. Obviously there's a bit of a contradiction were that the case since the input allows for differential circuits which are not single-ended.

Further, whether the embodiment is tube or solid state is irrelevant.

For example, I'm sure you've heard of GAS, who made the Ampzilla. That amp used an output circuit known as a Circlotron, the same as our OTLs. If that circuit were used with a differential balanced input (like we do), you'd have a fully differential balanced amplifier with only a single amplifier section driving the speaker terminals and it would be up to the designer as to whether a single or balanced feedback network would be used. 

So I really think your definition/opinion has you painted in a corner unnecessarily.  

@atmasphere  Perhaps my definition is too restrictive, but IMHO amp with one of speaker terminals at GND is not "Fully Balanced"

Amplifier shown on the first schematic here looks "Fully Balanced" to me


https://www.hifi-amplifiers.com/en/tonewinner-hdcd-player-power-amp-c-90/tonewinner-ad8pa-hiend-pure-class-a-power-amplifier-fully-balanced-output-p-5387.html

Do you agree it is "Fully Balanced"?

@kijanki It looks like that amp is. 

But:

I would not use a speaker terminal at ground as your definition, although our OTLs have both speaker terminals ungrounded and floating. 

Many ARC amplifiers do not have a grounded  'common' terminal; the impedance to ground of the common connection is the same as their 16 Ohm connection. 

IOW that is not the defining character of a fully balanced amplifier although it is a characteristic they are likely to have. 

We are experimenting with a tube amp that has a speaker terminal grounded, yet its fully balanced from input to output with dual feedback loops. 

@atmasphere   Amplifier in question PS Audio S300 has only balanced input with single ended stages following.  I don’t believe that adding, for instance input transformer, makes any amplifier "Fully Balanced".  In my opinion such amp is an amplifier with true balanced input.