Balanced Headphone Amplifiers

[4N6]

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.

The McIntosh may be a balanced design, but I don't think the headphone output is balanced. Is it a single 1/4 inch jack input? If so that is single ended. A balanced headphone jack is either a single 4-pin female, or 2 3-pin female input jacks.

[W9TR]

Correct - the C1100 is fully balanced except for the headphone amp, which is not balanced. I'll correct my original post.

[PHC1]

How are you liking your Audeze LCD4 Tom?

[W9TR]

They are sounding really good after about 100 hours. I've been running them for several days with a bunch of different music.

The tonal balance came out right away - much to my liking. Just in the last day, the soundfield has expanded so that it is partially outside my head. It's uncanny really.

Apart from the obligatory Koss Pro4/a cans I had in college, this is my first real audiophile headphone experience.

I really like the super clarity and tonality. You get a deep look into the music that I've never heard speakers match - even megabuck ones.

It's hard to get used to being tethered to an amp. That's not a problem with my desktop system though.

I find myself listening more in the early morning hours because I won't disturb anyone, whereas with the speakers that was a concern.

[PHC1]

Glad to hear you are enjoying your LCD-4 Tom.

[PHC1]

Getting back to balanced, the point to be made here is that not all headphone amplifiers are designed the same. If they are truly balanced as is the case with the Bryston BHA-1 for example, the following is the advantage of balanced, FWIW.

Advancing our tradition of unmatched audio performance and functionality, the BHA1 is Bryston’s reference amplifier solution for the finest listening experience from your headphones. The BHA 1 is compatible with both traditional (single-ended) and balanced headphones. The advantage of powering each headphone driver (right and left) with two amplifiers configured in balanced or series mode is a doubling of the signal voltage to each speaker. This design configuration has been the foundation of Bryston’s legendary 7B, 14B and 28B amplifiers and now headphone users can experience the same dramatic resolution from the BHA-1. The Bryston BHA-1 employs the vast benefits of balanced amplifier designs that are inherently clean and stable especially when there is a demand for higher power and/or a difficult load to drive. Because most headphones are not balanced devices, Bryston provides a traditional (unbalanced) ¼-inch input on the BHA-1 as well as inputs for balanced headphones. Bryston will also provide modifications to some headphone models to make them compatible with a balanced output configuration, along with an adapter cable assuring backwards compatibility to all traditional (unbalanced) headphone outputs.

[mulveling]

In the past I've used a number of non-differential balanced headphone amps; these designs only use half their circuitry (i.e. 2 out of the 4 mono amplifier boards) when driving headphones from their SE jacks (vs the balanced-drive XLR jack(s)), even with a balanced source input. The tube-based amplifier, and the amps with opamp gain stages all benefited DRASTICALLY from balanced drive XLR vs. SE. They literally sounded like a different amp. Soundstage and dynamics open up to a huge degree; there was also a non-fatiguing ease to the sound. However, the very cleanly designed all-discrete SS amplifier sounded already extremely good in SE mode, and only experienced incremental/moderate improvements with balanced drive.

The op-amp based amps were a Ray Samuels Apache and Headroom Maxxed Balanced Home (latest version ~ 2008; older Headroom amp designs were not nearly as good). The Headroom was the better amp (I still own it), but both amps showed similar improvements going from SE to XLR. The tube amp was a Singlepower SDS XLR, this monstrosity originally costing north of $10K -- but exquisitely beautiful sounding! The discrete SS amp was a Headamp Gilmore Balanced Reference, an implementation of Kevin Gilmore's dynalo circuit. In SE modes, I easily prefer this Gilmore to the Headroom. However, in balanced drive mode of each, it becomes a very close call, and I might even prefer the Headroom there!

I've also heard a Super-Symmetry dynahi (another Kevin Gilmore design) that's a true differential balanced headphone amp, and it's even better than the other SS amps I listed -- but I didn't try it in SE mode; I would guess it's still almost as great in SE mode, based on its sibling dynalo's strong performance in SE mode, and the true differential input stage.

If you have a non-differential balanced headphone amp, you should drive it with a balanced source AND use its XLR outputs in order to get all the performance you've paid for. If you don't have a balanced source (e.g. SE phono stage), I've successfully used a Jensen "ISO-Max" transformer box to convert an SE signal to balanced.

[PHC1]

My Black Dragon V2 Balanced cables should be arriving soon and I'll follow up on my findings SE vs. Balanced using the Sennheiser HD600/650 and Bryston BHA-1.

[PHC1]

Originally Posted by mulveling

In the past I've used a number of non-differential balanced headphone amps; these designs only use half their circuitry (i.e. 2 out of the 4 mono amplifier boards) when driving headphones from their SE jacks (vs the balanced-drive XLR jack(s)). The tube-based amplifier, and the amps with opamp gain stages all benefited DRASTICALLY from balanced drive XLR vs. SE. They literally sounded like a different amp. Soundstage and dynamics open up to a huge degree; there was also a non-fatiguing ease to the sound. However, the very cleanly designed all-discrete SS amplifier sounded already extremely good in SE mode, and only experienced incremental/moderate improvements with balanced drive.

The op-amp based amps were a Ray Samuels Apache and Headroom Maxxed Balanced Home (latest version ~ 2008; older Headroom amp designs were not nearly as good). The Headroom was the better amp (I still own it), but both amps showed similar improvements going from SE to XLR. The tube amp was a Singlepower SDS XLR, this monstrosity originally costing north of $10K. But exquisitely beautiful sounding! The discrete SS amp was a Headamp Gilmore Balanced Reference, an implementation of Kevin Gilmore's dynalo circuit. In SE mode, I easily prefer this Gilmore to the Headroom. However, in balanced drive mode of each, it becomes a very close call, and I might even prefer the Headroom there!

I've also heard a Super-Symmetry dynahi (another Kevin Gilmore design) that's a true differential balanced headphone amp, and it's even better than the other SS amps I listed -- but I didn't try it in SE mode; I would guess it's still almost as great in SE mode.

If you have a non-differential balanced headphone amp, you should drive it with a balanced source to get all the performance you've paid for. If you don't have a balanced source (e.g. SE phono stage), I've successfully used a Jensen "ISO-Max" transformer box to convert a SE source to balanced.

Most reviews I have read also favor Balanced for most of the products designed for truly balanced operation and implementation of circuitry.

[PHC1]

Tried the Balanced out of the Bryston BHA-1 this morning with the new Moon Audio Black Dragon cables for my Sennheiser HD600 and 650.

Immediate increase in perceived resolution and dynamics. Both pairs sound more open and airy with higher perceived sense of resolution and increase in dynamic drive and slam. Bass is tighter and more resolved. Not a trace of hardness or grain.

It's like going from a very good amplifier to a great one. Essentially this is what going Balanced with the Bryston BHA-1 is. I'll give the new cables some time to burn in and get used to the new and improved sound and do some SE vs Balanced comparisons via the BHA-1.