Pass Labs Aleph Question - balanced vs unbalanced?



I have a Pass Labs Aleph 5. I also have a Supratek Chardonnay Pre-Amp with balanced and unbalanced out. Do people think the Pass Amps sound better through balanced vs unbalanced? I understood that they were truly engineered to run balanced for best sound quality, but am not sure.

I am having a problem with balanced operation (that I don't want to mention here so I don't complicate my question), so I'm trying to see if its worth figuring the other problem out or just sticking with unbalanced.
lightminer

Showing 1 response by gundam91

If you use RCA (single-ended) interconnects, make sure you keep the jumper pins to connect #1 and #3 on both XLR connections. Otherwise, you will loose some dB when using single-ended cable.

You brought up an interesting point regarding terminology. I remember 10 years ago, I had read on Stereophile referring RCA connections as "sigle-ended" connection and used that on one of the online forums and was laughed at for misusing the term as at that time the term was mostly used to describe tube circuitry as others have stated.

FrankC