I think the confusion may be that the line level inputs to the MX-HPA will accept both single ended connection via RCA jacks or balanced connection via the XLR jacks, on the rear of the unit. The headphone outputs on the front of the unit are not balanced. Balanced connections are only required for microphone or line-level signals that will be further amplified and any noise induced by a long cable needs to be eliminated. Headphones are basically mini speakers with a hot and neutral input to left and right just like a normal speaker. The typical TRS plug of most headphone cables uses the tip for the left hot signal, the ring for the right hot and the sleeve to provide neutral to both sides. The XLR portion of the combo jacks for the headphone out are probably wired for pin 2 left hot, pin 3 for right hot and pin 1 for neutral for both sides. The OP's complaint may stem from the XLR to TRS extension cable being mis-wired so that L and R are either being summed to mono or only the L or R are being fed to each ear cup, resulting in mono presentation.
Convert XLR to TRS Headphone Cable Issue
My headphone's cable is hardwired with a male TRS termination to the headphone amp. My new headphone amp (Musical Fidelity) has a combination output jack, either TRS or 3-pin XLR will fit . I had a 3 wire (cable) 8' extension cable made that is terminated female TRS to connect with the headphone cable and XLR to plug into the amp/out fixture. So, without the extension I got great music and very good soundstaging with the TRS headphone cable, but with the extension I lost the sound staging, sounds mono. My headphone amp is "fully balanced"; however, signal input is not balanced, but is by very good RCA interconnects from my CD player, if that matters...the maker of the cable is very aware of making sure the 3 wires connecting the XLR to the TRS are properly matched, but I cannot visually confirm unless I remove his shrink wrap. I am not an electrical engineer by any means, but would appreciate thoughts and recommendations.
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Not according to the manufacturer: The MX-HPA is genuinely fully balanced from beginning This review from Hi-Fi News seems authoritative. Note what appear to be combo balanced XLR headphone output jacks on the front panel, consistent with Musical Fidelity’s claims and HiFi News.
This is all pretty straightforward stuff, folks. |
cleeds, thank you for the link and clarification. I stand corrected. |
cleeds It never ceases to amaze me how when someone doesn't understand something they resort to insults. All you had to do was ask me to clarify my post. The silly thing is you don't have to take my word for any of it. Simply look at the schematics for any so called "balanced" headphone amp and see for yourself. If you had trouble reading it, I would have explained. I made 2 main points in my post. The first is most people fall for the balanced headphone scam. You clearly fell for it. The second was the technical reasons to back it up. I'm not changing a word of my post because every word of it is correct. You fell for the advertising. Instead, get the schematics for this MF headphone amp, or any other one that claims to be balanced, and then we'll see who knows what they're talking about. But I know this will never happen. Once you see how it works, You'll have to admit you were wrong. I've confronted several manufacturers on this and everyone of them reluctantly admitted that I was right. |
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