Single Ended DAC vs Dual Differential XLR DAC
Hi,
will a dual differential XLR DAC (with i.e. 2x Left DAC chips + 2x Right DAC chips) always sound better than a Single Ended DAC (with i.e. 1x Left DAC chip + 1x Right DAC chip) assuming that they have the same DAC chip model and same board design (except the dual circuitry of the XLR version)?
The XLR has twice the output voltage, but will pure audio quality be certainly superior to the Single Ended version?
Thanks for your opinion!
Gianluca
Basically what ^^^^ they said. I don't know if you're talking about single ended (RCA) or XLR or a dual mono dac as opposed to a shared signal path and transformer. RCA vs XLR is never certain XLR on paper should sound better but that is not always the case. Very cable dependent too. Dual mono is usually but not always superior it's always better to listen and decide for yourself. |
@gkg2k Hi Gianluca I feel your pain not being able to demo gear, however as I see it the single ended dac is $1.5k and the balanced $2.5k. I would definitely go for the single ended and spend the extra $1k on good cables but DEMO the cables first, don't just buy them because they are expensive. Otherwise loads of Chinese R2R DACs available around $2-3k. Hope this helps. |
