Is B&K reference 200.5 internally balanced?

gurot1

I am using Emotiva xsp-1 as a preamp and using the B&K as a power amp. I have a pioneer avr connected to the emotiva and use the HT bypass on emotiva when watching a movie. Both the pre and power amps have balanced and unbalanced connectors. When using balanced cable from emotiva to B&k there is a 3db drop in output. I had been expecting an increase not a decrease. Just using monoprice xlr as I had wanted to see if balanced would increase the dB at at same volume setting. Any ideas on why this is happening?

mantis

I gotta think the Emotiva Preamp has low XLR output voltage, that would explain the DB drop.
The reason to use balanced connections is to protect yourself from interference. Not sure how good of quality the Monoprice cables are and if they are built correctly.
XLR cables even entry level models usually do a pretty good job. I have used lower quality cables and they worked for interference just fine. but when you get into higher end XLR cables, the noise floor is even lower. You get a very dark silence between sounds unlike some noisy unbalanced connectors and make. Usually higher quality unbalanced cables are dead quiet so going balanced in some cases makes no difference.

EndersShadow

There should be a button that controls each pair of speaker connectors that switches it between balance and unbalanced. You need to push it in for balanced or you will get that reduction in volume.

gurot1

I tried it in both positions. No output when it is in wrong position. Lol I thought there was a problem when I first got the b&k and didn't hear anything when I first hooked it up via rca

gmcman

I'm guessing between the avr and the emotiva, you have some added gain through the unbalanced connections despite being in bypass.

gurot1

I have my CD player connected directly to the preamp ( emotiva) via rca and even with the avr out of the equation ( I disconnected the rca's from the avr to the preamp and the output difference was still there). I had initially tried to see the difference between using the balanced and unbalanced connections with music on cd player and noticed the difference in output being opposite what I was expecting. Then I decided to use the test tones from the avr to better quantify the difference using an RS spl meter.

mantis

On a side note the B&K Reference 200.5 is one killer amp

gurot1

It is a killer amp...it almost killed my back when I picked it up I contacted Emotiva and they were surprised by the results as well. I am wondering if the b&k is doing something or if it is the cables. The only reason I was even trying it out was bc the avr was setting a high trim on the front left and right channels so I figured maybe using balanced would help decrease the need for this. There is a piece of satisfaction that comes from the click made when connecting the xlr cables