Balanced Headphone Amplifiers

[PHC1]

Originally Posted by W9TR

Now back to balanced.....

This new offering from Woo also sounded excellent! It is the WA-33 and was on display at RMAF 2017 for the very first time. I got the chance to speak with Jack Wu at length about his products, headphones, and audio in general. I think he's a sharp guy who makes great products. This amp driving a variety of headphones sounded great. I heard the big Abyss, HiFIMan HE 1000V2, and Mr. Speakers Aeon FLow.

Serious toobage going on here. Would love to audition.

[mulveling]

The following was posted by famous headphone amp designer Kevin Gilmore on another site; I found it the be a very nice explanation/summary of how not all balanced amplifiers are the same. I had to edit out some language

a true balanced differential amplifier will have significant common mode rejection. For example there are a few well known diy dacs that have a bit of dc on their output. a differential amplifier will subtract the dc from the inputs and the output will be free of dc with respect to ground. a balanced amplifier made from 4 x unbalanced input amplifiers will have significant dc on the output.

For headphones wired as balanced, no problem. For headphones wired as single ended, could be a big problem.

supersymmetry dynalo and dynahi are true balanced differential amplifiers. So is the RSA darkstar (although it still sounds like ****)

schiit joutenheim is a balanced differential amplifier (actually its an instrumentation amplifier) but has significant differential gain when used with a single ended input.

liquid gold, liquid carbon, gsx are not balanced differential amplifiers. The first two have phase splitters to fix the problem. the gsx is balanced out only when you have a balanced input signal.

[PHC1]

Originally Posted by mulveling

The following was posted by famous headphone amp designer Kevin Gilmore on another site; I found it the be a very nice explanation/summary of how not all balanced amplifiers are the same. I had to edit out some language

No, they are definitely not all the same.

[W9TR]

Funny that the balanced / unbalanced argument hasn't been as vehement for loudspeakers, which are arguably just bigger, harder to drive headphones.

[PHC1]

Originally Posted by W9TR

Funny that the balanced / unbalanced argument hasn't been as vehement for loudspeakers, which are arguably just bigger, harder to drive headphones.

https://www.prosoundtraining.com/201...kers-balanced/

[4N6]

My experience is that going balanced is not necessarily an upgrade, and that for music listening, it makes little difference.

Going balanced was once all the rage, and I had gone head first into the pond with it. After awhile I started wondering if all the money I spent going balanced really was worth it.

Did an experiment a few years back. Using three different balanced amps, a pair of Sennheiser HD580 headphones, and equal length sets of both balanced and single ended Cardas headphone cables, I went back and forth trying to hear a difference. I even level matched the volume the best I could using an spl meter, as the balanced outputs were always a little louder.

Bottom line, very little to no perceivable difference between balanced and single ended when listening to music. Biggest difference was ALWAYS the quality of the amplifier, not the type of termination of the headphone cables.

Now, I no longer worry about balanced vs. single ended, just what is the highest quality and best sounding amp I can afford.

[W9TR]

Like speakers, headphones are balanced and can't tell what is driving them.
I have heard bigger differences in individual amps vs the species they belong to; balanced or unbalanced.

What I don't get is why it is such a big deal for the headphone crowd compared to speakers.

Nobody says - wow that D'Agostino amp sounds great because it's balanced. They just say WoW, that's a great amp.

[PHC1]

Much has to do with the design of the headphone amplifier itself and not that balanced HAS to be superior by inherent design when it comes to headphones. It was not my intention to post this thread proclaiming the balanced is the only way to do it right. It was posted for educational purposes for those that were interested in reading what the balanced pros and cons may be.

I agree with the above statement that highest quality amplifier should be the goal and the decision does not necessarily have to be based on whether it offers balanced or it is single ended only.

I would say even more important is the synergy between the headphone amplifier and headphones just like it is in our main systems. I certainly have developed a preference between the 3 headphone amps and currently four pairs of headphones that I am using and it is no different than speakers and amps.

[W9TR]

It was not my intention to post this thread proclaiming the balanced is the only way to do it right. It was posted for educational purposes for those that were interested in reading what the balanced pros and cons may be.

Thank you Serge - all this info, pro and con has been a fascinating read. I'm really glad I'm getting into headphones about the same time that you are. I get take advantage of all the good stuff you dig up and your personal experiences with different amps and headphones. Kind of like hitching onto a rocket! Keep 'em coming.

I just got the LCD-4's and guess what....they sound best being driven by my McIntosh C1100. That's compared to the Benchmark DAC3 headphone amp. The McIntosh is balanced, except for the headphone amp, which is single ended.

[PHC1]

Originally Posted by W9TR

I just got the LCD-4's and guess what....they sound best being driven by my McIntosh C1100. That's compared to the Benchmark DAC3 headphone amp. The McIntosh is balanced.

Tom, first let me say congrats on the Reference Grade headphone set. The LCD-4 is an extremely impressive set of cans. I am not surprised that you prefer the McIntosh.

Tom, if you have not tried Roon, I would highly suggest you do. I am stunned at the great sound that is possible with all the variety of music one can listen to through streaming. Never thought I'd get seriously into it with reference grade headphones but man, this Roon stuff is just great!

To experience the best quality, need Roon and Roon end point device. There are Audeze Presets within the very powerful DSP section of Roon, including the LCD-4 which you may want to try.