Of course I try to level match as close as possible when I am comparing SE vs Balanced.
I just received a pair of Black Dragons with the Furutech XLR connector for the Focal Utopia and I immediately heard a substantial difference in dynamic contrast, transparency and an even blacker background. The Utopia was already a very resolving instrument for deep listening and the Black Dragons in Balanced lifted yet another veil. It is simply amazing how black the background is and on some of the better recordings I can hear even deeper into the soundstage and all the micro details emerge with more clarity.
Of the three headphone amps, I only have the Balanced on my Bryston BHA-1 amp so far. So I still can not say definitively if it is the cables or balanced mode itself but if with the Sennheisers I would have believed the stock cables leave something on the table but the Sennheisers in balanced were a huge step up in performance.
I seriously do not think this is the case with the Focal Utopia stock cables. I think they are quite good from the factory which leaves the Bryston BHA-1 which is truly balanced with push pull of the 2 amps for each channel/driver for a total of 4. Yes, the Black Dragons may in fact be better than the stock Utopia cables as well, I can not discount that fact and/or it could be some mix of both factors involved but I really don't care. The end result is, The Utopia and BHA-1 Balanced sounds freaking AWESOME.
