Balanced ----- Unbalanced----

Hi Herman, for cables alone the topology is indeed better. Before balanced line came along, transcontinental phone calls were impossible. HiFi did not exist in recordings. Balanced line operation transformed that.

Even in short runs that you see in the home the improvement is obvious. It allows you to have short speaker cables and long interconnects so you can put the front end of the system where you want it, rather than only between the speakers, without degradation. Once hearing what this offers, there really is no going back.

I might offer this technology, but its really a matter of I do it because it works. I certainly don't keep it a secret and I do stand behind it either way- I hope that's not a problem :)

Ralph, we've had this conversation numerous times. Just as firmly as you believe in the benefits, I believe that the simplicity of SET and SE outweighs them in the home enviroment. I don't think either of us will be swayed by the others arguments.

I am amused by the transcontinental phone call argument. Come on, who cares how phone calls are transmitted.

The argument that the "pros use it so it must be better" holds no water either. It is a different enviroment, different equipment, different purpose. Again, it has no bearing on this discussion.

My favorite is those who say they tried their balanced equipement in SE mode and balanced sounded better; therefore balanced is inherently better than SE. A ridiculous conclusion. It sounds better because they are using it in the manner it was designed to be used. If you try to run a late 60's muscle car on unleaded gas it won't perform well. These people would conclude that leaded gas is better than unleaded when the truth is the engines were designed for leaded, so they work better with leaded.

I do truly believe that you believe and practice what you preach, but if Conrad or Johnson got on here and started preaching the superiority of SE we would have to take that with a grain of salt too.

Herman, before balanced line occurred, you had to scream at the top of your lungs to make a call across the state. The fact of the matter is balanced line was a transformation because there was less information loss. Historically you may find it uninteresting, but the implication for the quality of the sound in your recordings was profound.

The idea the SE is simpler is a common misconception. At first blush, it appears that because balanced equipment has more parts, that the signal chain is more complex. In fact the signal often negotiates the same number of gain stages, sometimes less. For example, in an SET there are usually 3 stages of gain, sometimes two. In our amps, which are balanced, there is one. There are 3 stages of gain in our preamps, which includes the low output MC input. Most SE preamps have more stages than that.

Its not better because the pros use it, the pros use it because it works better. The balanced line system was designed with the specific intention of eliminating cable differences and interactions. The benefit is that you can use a cheap cable to the same effect as a really expensive cable- effectively eliminating a cost in your system. That's not something you can say about SE cables!

How can you dismiss the benefits of common mode noise rejection?

How much noise can you pick up in a few feet of cable?

The benefit is that you can use a cheap cable to the same effect as a really expensive cable- effectively eliminating a cost in your system. That's not something you can say about SE cables!

So why do I see ultra expensive balanced cables as well as SE cables? I can make you an SE cable from magnet wire or a twisted pair of CAT5 cable that works as well as the expensive SE cable.

Herman, before balanced line occurred, you had to scream at the top of your lungs to make a call across the state

Once again, who cares what the phone company uses.

In our amps, which are balanced, there is one.

I have no access to the schematics of your amps, but I believe in order to do this you have many tubes in parallel which presents it's own problems. There is no free lunch.

Its not better because the pros use it, the pros use it because it works better.

Exactly, it works better in a very noisy studio enviroment with pro audio equipment when you are trying to record very low level signals. A situation that is never repeated at home.