To balance or not to balance, that is the question


All else being equal, is it better to use balanced or single ended interconnects from preamp to power amp? This assumes a length of 1 meter.
sydneysophia

Showing 1 response by subaruguru

TRULY balanced operation will yield exactly a +6dB increase, possibly lowered noisefloor, resulting in more perceived detail and top octave air.
Fully complementary balanced designs thus usually sound better when run correctly (XLR) rather than just single-ended (RCA). FAKE balanced operation will have the same loudness as single-ended, and thus no advantages. Hope this helps.