Quote:
Originally Posted by PHC1
Nothing but the stock cable and Black Dragon in the recent times. Dragons are good. I was surprised to hear such a difference but I assume the biggest difference is the balanced drive of Bryston BHA-1 since the Dragons are balanced and BHA-1 puts out twice the voltage to each driver in balanced mode.
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If the spirit moves you, order another Black Dragon cable in single ended of equal length. Taking care to PRECISELY match levels when switching between cables (may need an SPL meter to do so), see if you hear a difference between balanced and single ended using the same amp.
Many people prefer the balanced. Not surprising since hardly anyone ever corrects for volume differences. If the balanced output is louder (which it often is due to the higher voltage you mentioned), then it will sound "fuller" with greater bass, soundstage depth, detail, etc. An easy psychoacoustic trap to fall into.
Another reason I see for the preference of balanced...comparing a well designed balanced cable to the relatively poor stock cable. Rarely have I seen a comparison when both the single ended and balanced cables were the same thing.
I did the test above with the Sennheisers. Agree that they scale tremendously well with better cables and amplification. Amazing, actually. But when corrected for volume and all variables are the same (cable type and length), I couldn't tell much if any difference between balanced and single ended.
I also agree that in theory there are electrical benefits in going balanced, but I am not sure how well this translates to real world listening. In my experience, not much.
Just for thought...I was writing a review of the McIntosh headphone amplifier and contacted Mac to answer some questions. One of mine was why Mac did not offer balanced headphone outputs on a high end and relatively expensive headphone amplifier. Their answer...having balanced did not affect sound quality and was therefore not needed. Interesting.
I have heard it said that balanced headphone amplifiers are just a way for amp makers to charge more for the amp and get greater profit. Perhaps.