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Post by monkumonku on Dec 19, 2016 11:33:32 GMT -5
There seem to be a lot of misunderstandings floating around about audio circuitry.....  Op-amps have nothing whatsoever to do with being balanced or not. You can have both balanced and unbalanced circuits with and without op-amps. Likewise, a single DAC chip can contain a single unbalanced DAC, a single balanced DAC, or even dual balanced DACs (or even more). It simply depends on what DAC chip you're talking about. Some people just don't LIKE op-amps..... The reality there is that op-amps and discrete parts each have their own advantages and disadvantages. Therefore, neither is inherently better, and it's up to the designer to use the parts that work best in the circuit itself..... And, because certain parts may work very well in certain applications, and poorly in others, it usually doesn't make sense to make generalizations. But it's Facebook... everything on Facebook is true.  Oh most definitely. But maybe he was mistaken and saw a Fakebook post. |
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KeithL
Administrator 
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Post by KeithL on Dec 19, 2016 11:52:23 GMT -5
Let me offer a bit of clarification about balanced circuitry and balanced connections. In order to have "a fully balanced system" you need to have fully balanced components and fully balanced connections between them. The benefit of fully balanced components is that, because they have dual symmetrical signal paths, any distortion present in both signal paths tends to cancel out. So, for example, if you have a fully balanced amplifier, it has two channels of amplifier in it, operating out of phase; and any distortion present in both channels cancels out. While this will yield lower distortion figures, and perhaps slightly lower noise figures as well, the amount of audible benefit will vary depending on the amplifiers themselves. (If the distortion of a single channel is very low to begin with, and not audible to begin with, then reducing it further is of limited value.) The benefit of a balanced connection is that, because you have dual symmetrical signal paths, both of which are exposed to the same external noise, any noise picked up by both will tend to cancel out. This means that any external noise picked up by the interconnect, like hum, will tend to cancel out, which makes balanced connections very resistant to hum and noise. This is why pro sound folks usually use balanced connections - because it reduces the likelihood of hum and noise. In a home system, whether this makes a difference will basically depend on whether you have noise problems to begin with. (And, if you're running long interconnects, or running interconnects through walls, it's good insurance against noise problems.) However, there's no reason to expect to hear an obvious difference otherwise. Also note that balanced inputs and outputs do not necessarily mean that the component itself is fully balanced. While balanced connections are a requirement for a fully balanced system, there are many components that have balanced inputs and/or outputs, but are not balanced components. (And, yes, as long as their inputs or outputs are balanced, you do get the benefits of a balanced connection.) You are correct, the DSD1796 is a stereo DAC. My bad. However, the XMC-1 does require balanced amplifiers to operate in balanced mode for stereo so purchasers need to take that into consideration if balanced operation is a priority. As I said before, I use a pair of balanced XPA-1L amps now and am very pleased with the result, but I ran the XMC-1 with a B&K 7250 amp, which is not balanced, for several months and the sound was great. Either way the XMC-1 is an exceptionally good sounding processor. |
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Post by junchoon on Dec 19, 2016 20:59:32 GMT -5
Thanks for the explanation guys.
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