Anyways, my question is: has anyone ever thought that single ended sounded better?given the 2 options. Im only referring to a truly balanced connection.
I ask, because a manufacturer who makes tube amps, recommends single over balanced connection. Is there something else involved in this decision, additional parts or labor complexity? Is the signal path extended?
The issue you are up against when asking this question is that there is a standard for balanced line operation that is rarely supported in high end audio.
The standard (AES48) reduces the ’sound’ of interconnect cables dramatically and thus also allows longer distances. It also prevents ground loops.
If the standard is not observed these benefits go away.
Balanced line however (especially if the equipment itself is also balanced) is inherently lower distortion, since even ordered harmonics get cancelled.
But otherwise when the standard is not observed, how its going to sound is anyone’s guess.
I am also a manufacturer, and in this case the one that introduced balanced line operation into home audio equipment back in the late 1980s. So now you also know a tube amp manufacturer that says that if you hear a balanced line system that is properly set up, there’s no going back to single-ended.
If you do it right, although there may be more parts, the actual signal path may well be less complex if you go balanced (inside the equipment itself). For example our amplifiers have only a single stage of gain.
One advantage of balanced operation is that the interconnect cables need not be expensive to sound right! Quite literally the balanced line system is a technology meant to minimize any artifacts associated with the interconnect cable. It was used in all the classic stereo recordings. Sometimes the microphone signal in those recordings had to travel up to 200 feet to arrive at the microphone preamp; if there were cable problems this simply would not have worked!