"The Audio Research amp that I purchased is a true balanced design.... I... never took advantage of its balanced technology"
I am not sure I understand meaning of the word "true balanced design"....as oppose to "false.."?
I guess that your ARC amp has FULLY balanced design. I define word "fully" as balanced from the beginning to the end of the signal path.
If so then you did big mistake ny not utilizing fully balanced design since you already paid for it and had it!
Lets clarify the terms confused by some audiophiles
1 - XLR termination - does not mean anytning. It could lead to "true" balanced input stage or its negative signal is immidiately grounded thus converting it into single ended input signal.
2 True balanced input. Can utilize the number of connections. E. G. one XLR or as its done on Spectron amps (as an option to use) two RCA inputs (one positive and another is negative) - I use it in my own system.
Its advantage is described above - reduction of noise upstream. Nothing more ! I have tube preamp (Joule-Electra LA-300ME) with RCA outputs and when I place my ear to the woofer of my speaker I hear nothing, no noise, nothing...so for me and many, many, many others balanced input provide nothing. (again if you have 100' cable and its raining and stars allign badly etc then you better off with balanced input)
3 Balanced amplification. There are a few implimentation of it. As one of them let look at Joule-Electra LA-300ME preamp. It has RCA input, then the phase splitter splits the input signal into two (positive and negative) and TWO SETS of amplification stage or stages amplify them . Next the one signal is subctracted from another (positive - negative = positive x2 - double signal or in this case double half-signal). However, please note that as oppose to the noise - distortion produced by this amplification stage or stages is not random event and therefore, in "ideal amplifier" both positive and negative distortions have identical amplitude but oppose phases and distortions are therefore CANCEL each other during subtraction stage. As a result you have distrortion free music.
Distortion-free music is spectacular !!!!!!!!
Finally, "300" outputs this already distortion free signal via RCA (single ended output).... and you do with it whatever you want
4 Fully Balanced Design where you have balanced inputs, outputs and most important (and most $$$$$$$$$$$$$) balanced amplification.
IMO, to have fully balanced amplifier and use only half of it is crazy..... You got to speak with manufacturer of your equipment to untilize it in FULL.
I must state for the record that some (e.g.differential) balanced amplifiers will still utilize your single ended signal but most probably not in fullest extend - it can be debated.
Example: Joule-Electra fully balanced preamp LA-450ME. As amplification it balanced twice i.e. has twice more stages as LA-300ME. One set remove distortions as explained above - but in real world amplifier you can't cancel them to zero, part toletance is not 100% thus another set cancel residuals and if you look J-E web site you will see that distortion level drops 8 times going from "300" to "450".
Double Distortioin Free amplifier is double spectacular !!!!
At any rate, Joule-Electra can add single ended input (RCA) and phase splitter so you will use all 450's amplification stages even if your input signal is single ended.
Hope it helps - if not my apologies
I am not sure I understand meaning of the word "true balanced design"....as oppose to "false.."?
I guess that your ARC amp has FULLY balanced design. I define word "fully" as balanced from the beginning to the end of the signal path.
If so then you did big mistake ny not utilizing fully balanced design since you already paid for it and had it!
Lets clarify the terms confused by some audiophiles
1 - XLR termination - does not mean anytning. It could lead to "true" balanced input stage or its negative signal is immidiately grounded thus converting it into single ended input signal.
2 True balanced input. Can utilize the number of connections. E. G. one XLR or as its done on Spectron amps (as an option to use) two RCA inputs (one positive and another is negative) - I use it in my own system.
Its advantage is described above - reduction of noise upstream. Nothing more ! I have tube preamp (Joule-Electra LA-300ME) with RCA outputs and when I place my ear to the woofer of my speaker I hear nothing, no noise, nothing...so for me and many, many, many others balanced input provide nothing. (again if you have 100' cable and its raining and stars allign badly etc then you better off with balanced input)
3 Balanced amplification. There are a few implimentation of it. As one of them let look at Joule-Electra LA-300ME preamp. It has RCA input, then the phase splitter splits the input signal into two (positive and negative) and TWO SETS of amplification stage or stages amplify them . Next the one signal is subctracted from another (positive - negative = positive x2 - double signal or in this case double half-signal). However, please note that as oppose to the noise - distortion produced by this amplification stage or stages is not random event and therefore, in "ideal amplifier" both positive and negative distortions have identical amplitude but oppose phases and distortions are therefore CANCEL each other during subtraction stage. As a result you have distrortion free music.
Distortion-free music is spectacular !!!!!!!!
Finally, "300" outputs this already distortion free signal via RCA (single ended output).... and you do with it whatever you want
4 Fully Balanced Design where you have balanced inputs, outputs and most important (and most $$$$$$$$$$$$$) balanced amplification.
IMO, to have fully balanced amplifier and use only half of it is crazy..... You got to speak with manufacturer of your equipment to untilize it in FULL.
I must state for the record that some (e.g.differential) balanced amplifiers will still utilize your single ended signal but most probably not in fullest extend - it can be debated.
Example: Joule-Electra fully balanced preamp LA-450ME. As amplification it balanced twice i.e. has twice more stages as LA-300ME. One set remove distortions as explained above - but in real world amplifier you can't cancel them to zero, part toletance is not 100% thus another set cancel residuals and if you look J-E web site you will see that distortion level drops 8 times going from "300" to "450".
Double Distortioin Free amplifier is double spectacular !!!!
At any rate, Joule-Electra can add single ended input (RCA) and phase splitter so you will use all 450's amplification stages even if your input signal is single ended.
Hope it helps - if not my apologies