[W9TR]

Yep - the Benchmark white paper misses a lot of critical points. I don't agree with most of it. But I also think he makes some good points.

The best sound I've ever heard from headphones was a balanced DAC into a fully balanced headphone amp.

So let me unpack this.

Headphones are balanced by nature - TRUE. They don't know if they are being driven by a single ended or balanced amp.

Having a common return will cause some crosstalk. TRUE.

So run a 4 wire system from the amp to the phones and then it's macht nicht.

What Siau misses is that having a truly balanced amplifier driving the 'phones will cancel out the distortion in the two identical amps that are driving the 'phones differentially. Done correctly, balanced drive dramatically reduces distortion.

Siau's claim that the noise goes up with balanced is specious and without merit.

The signal voltage doubles, but the uncorrelated noise does not, so the S/N actually improves by 3 dB.

Balanced reduces noise induced in the cables - FALSE. Since the headphones themselves are balanced, there is no difference between balanced and unbalanced cables. Any induced noise will be cancelled at the drivers.

Am I stirring the pot? You decide. But I don't have any economic interest in the discussion, whereas the authors of all articles posted so far definitely do.