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Does balanced interconnect sound beter than RCA?

I'm in the process of upgrading my system and looking at new/used integraged amps. The amps i am considering are the sim i-5, the plinius 8200 mk 2, perreaux 200ip and the classe cap151. Some have have both balanced and RCA connectors for the CD player and some don't. Can you hear the difference of the Balanced connection versus the RCA connection? It seems that their is a lot of very expensive equipment that does not have balanced connections which would seem to indicate that it doesn't necessarily need to be there. Is it worth getting an amp or cd player that can utilize balanced connections?
thanks,
jmillen
jmillen

Showing 2 responses by psychicanimal

psychicanimal
1,738 posts
 
There's a really good thread in AudioCircle that deals w/ this topic. I really like my friend Dejan Veselinovic's (AKA the Serbian Hope) answer, as it is original and thoughtful. He says RCA usually sounds beter than balanced if the ground is filtered. My current setup happens to use RCA interconnects and a 3KW, 220V/110V ONEAC islolation transformer/filter that has a patented "Virtual Ground" feature that isolates the building's ground from the transformer's. My system is real quiet--spooky quiet.

http://audiocircle.com/circles/viewtopic.php?t=8355
psychicanimal
1,738 posts
 
"For example, Conrad Johnson uses all single ended designs and seem to believe the extra cost involved with balanced circuitry is superfluous for home audio."

What Dejan Veselinovic says makes a LOT of sense. Seems that with a filtered ground single ended connectors will outperform balanced in most instances. It is much cheaper to take care of the ground.
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