Balanced or SET Which one is more musical? Need help

borrow a pair of balanced cables from a retailer and try both. that is really the only way to tell: by listening. good luck!

Balanced.

Balanced is only good if you have long interconnects and unstable oscilating power in your setup.
In the rest of cases musicality and transparancy is better with SE interconnects

I have balanced on my 508.24 and this is what Meridian recommends since the CD player is truly balanced. I had SE's prior. Steve

Your question has been posed many times previously in various other threads.

To answer your question: balanced or not is highly component/system/preference dependant. Some components are designed with the intent that they be run balanced. These components will be most revealing when run in this manner. Other components are designed with the intent that they be run single ended, and thus will sound better that way. ...It's got nothing to do with long interconnect runs. THAT... IS the reason balanced was created ...for pro audio applications - where long runs of cable are unavoidable. BUT… Now many designers use balanced inputs/outputs to gain performance increases as well as to offer flexibility for those who MUST use long IC runs.

Take the advise of Tacs. ...Listen to balanced AND SE. Make sure that the IC's are the same brand and quality. ...AND that they are equally burned in - or you will not get a clear idea of which allows your system to sound its best. Testing both really is the only true way to know which you will prefer.

To further complicate matters you may find that your system sounds louder with the balanced IC's in place. ...It is my understanding that using a balanced I/C provides a gain increase equating to 3db. You may need to compensate for this in order to make a fair comparison.

Cheers,
Mike

I perfectly agree with Mike: if your components are designed "fully balanced" then go for balanced.
Good luck!
Aida_w