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Balanced But Not Fully Balanced

I own a preamp which has both balanced and single ended jacks. I assumed that since I was using the balanced jacks I was getting the benefit of a balanced circuit. I have just now realized that just having balanced plug-ins doesn't mean your preamp (or any other component) is "balanced." Just wondering what sonic compromises are being made with equipment which has balanced inputs and outputs but changes the signal to single ended as it passes through it. If you are using the balanced outputs, what good is that if the signal going into this jack is single ended? I don't understand what good is it to offer equipment with balanced capability only to revert to single ended signals. Is this just a gimmick to sell equipment or is there some advantage to not making the circuitry "fully balanced?"
frepec
verdantaudio's avatar
verdantaudio
1,463 posts
 
Not necessarily.  Look at Musical Fidelity M8xi.  That is a fully balanced unit which is a true dual mono amp and even has separate power supplies for the two side of the amp and the XLRs are paired right next to each other.  It's a design choice like anything else.  

If it is unbalanced, sound quality will be dictated by the quality of transformer used to convert the signal unless your system is noisy or you have ground issues.  If it is an unbalanced amp, odds are the RCAs will sound better than the XLRs.  Especially if it is tube based gear.  
atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
11,575 posts
 
My question though: Is it typically a tip-off that a component is NOT fully balanced if the XLR input or output connectors for left and right channel are close to one another on one side of the component (say both on othe right side, rear faceplate), as opposed to being spaced from one another and generally on opposite (left and right) sides of the component?
No!  They can be side by side with no worries.
kren0006
1,859 posts
 
Thanks for the corrections to my incorrect assumption. Good to know!
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