Balanced vs Unbalanced?

Koegz, in a nutshell, that is the whole point of balanced line operation. The system was created to eliminate interconnect cable problems.

There is a standard that has to be conformed to in order for this to be true. If the conformance is not there, you will still hear differences in the cable.

The primary hanging point with most high end gear is the 600 ohm termination standard. What this means is that the equipment should be able to drive a load of 600 ohms (which might be at the input of the amplifier) without difficulty (for example loss of bass). For tubes this usually means an output transformer, or very large coupling caps, 100uf or more. Most high end manufacturers don't want to put in such a large capacitor at the output of the preamp, as it will color the sound and for the same reason aren't usually too keen about an output transformer either. That's why conformance to the standard is rare.

Ralph, I get what you are saying, and I may try it sometime, but I don't use a bypass cap. I have the filament current of my input tube going through the cathode resistor to establish bias. That R is only a few ohms so too low to do what you say.

Thanks for the idea though.

I am also confused with the different between Balanced vs Unbalanced. When I google it, they all say XLR better than Unbalanced. But during my test, I notice that it is not the case. I don’t know if its my system act differently or not.
Here is my gear.
McIntosh C52 preamp
Lumin D2 Streamer
Cambridge DAC Magic 200M.
https://www.moon-audio.com/silver-dragon-digital-cable-v1.html

Right now, I have the Digital Coax Silver Dragon silver cable connected from the Lumin D2 to my external DACMagic 200M. The DACMagic 200M has two output XLR or RCA.
I have both cables connected to my McIntosh C52 Preamp line in. So when I play the music from my streamer, I can switch from RCA or XLR to compare different. I noticed the sound from the RCA is much clear and brighter. I played a few songs that I listen to million times and hear the hi-hat way more clear than the XLR. I just don’t know why. Other people who used the XLR saying it has more clarity then RCA. But I don’t hear that at all. Even though I had my girlfriend did a blind test. She always pick the RCA has crystal clear sound.

Does any one have that experience ?

If I am not using the external DAC. I have the Lumin D2 connected to the digital coaxial silver dragon and XLR to the McIntosh C52. Switching back and forth for comparison. The clarity still from the Digital Coaxial cable. Is it because the XLR is more flat and neutral sounding?

or something wrong with my equipment lol?

Please help :-(

But during my test, I notice that it is not the case. I don’t know if its my system act differently or not.

The problem is that your gear doesn't support the balanced line standard, also known as AES48. This means that the interconnect cables will play a role in the system sound at the very least. It may well be that the balanced signal is going through additional circuits that the single-ended signal isn't.


To get everything out of balanced operation (otherwise, why do it?) you have to follow the standards. Otherwise the results are highly variable! Single ended connections don't have much in the way of standards. High end audio pretty much ignores AES48, perhaps because its harder to do. One of the most difficult issues is that in a balanced connection, the ground connection is ignored- there's no signal return currents in the shield of the interconnect cable. This is the aspect of balanced operation that is most commonly violated in high end audio.