Question About Balanced Interconnects?

BrentMcGhee

I am contimplating getting the outlaw 990 preamp with two 2200 monoblocks. I am going to be hooking the 990 to the 2200's with balanced interconnects. However my cd player will be hooked into the 990 with unbalanced interconnects. will the 990 be sending anything out of the balanced connections if the source is coming into it unbalanced?

rskarvan

Yes... however, there would be a big benefit if you had a balanced source feeding your pre-amp.

BrentMcGhee

am i really gaining anything using the balanced over the unbalanced to my power amps with my current configuration

rskarvan

Three advantages of operating in balanced: 1- its a better sounding circuit in general overall over that of a single-ended design, 2 - you get a lower noise floor - meaning you hear more of the music and less noise, and 3 - you get an additional 6 db of gain.

BrentMcGhee

Well i am sure when i get the pre-amp i will probably play around with it both ways anyway to hear the differences for my self. After all isnt that what this hobby is all about Thanks

Dennis Gardner

If you're drunk by 4PM, who cares, it all sounds good!!

The benefit of balanced circuits is really noticed in very long runs. Thats why pro audio uses them almost exclusively. In an ever changing venue that they don't have the time to troubleshoot and can't control where cables land, the noise rejection of balanced cables works great. In a home setting where you have more control of wiring runs and the placement remains constant, your low level signal runs are rarely dozens of feet in distance, so you won't get as much benefit.

Some people do prefer their monoblocks very close to the speakers if they have balanced wires. Just a thought.

heiney9

Balanced interconnects certainly have advantages. IMO, unless all connections are going to be balanced it's not really worth it. That being said if you have very long runs or have poor noise rejection they may be of some benefit in those situations.

H9

Holydoc

rskarvan wrote:

Three advantages of operating in balanced: 1- its a better sounding circuit in general overall over that of a single-ended design, 2 - you get a lower noise floor - meaning you hear more of the music and less noise, and 3 - you get an additional 6 db of gain.

Rskarvan,

Where did you read about these advantages? My understanding is that it was much more resistant to external interference and electrical static (i.e. noise) and thus should be used in long runs. That was the only advantage I have heard and even that advantage was negligible for runs shorter than a hundred feet.

Please post the link to your source so that I can read about these advantages. I am always looking for ways to improve my "music" understanding.

Thanks!

BrentMcGhee

Dennis Gardner wrote:

If you're drunk by 4PM, who cares, it all sounds good!!

Very True

rskarvan

I wrote to the service manager at Krell audio about balanced interconnects. He responded with the list of three advantages of balanced interconnects. I am an engineer. I've studied the circuits a little. The balanced circuits contain twice the electrical components vs. a single-ended circuit. I don't think the electrical engineers would bother to go through all this trouble if it weren't worth the effort. Afterall, twice the components means twice the cost and twice the possibility of defects. This is a very good reason to use balanced cables when available.

Eric W

This is a double edged sword. In many professional audio systems, the signal is balanced from the source (microphone, professional CD Player, synthesizer etc) all the way through the mixers, signal processors and then power amplifiers. However most pro audio systems function in very noisy enviroments (lights, wireless mics, running on several power circuits etc) and have extremely long cable runs. In the home, its a much different ball game, particularly when very few home audio sources are balanced to begin with.

I think this would be the major advantage: If your amplifiers are far away from your preamp (the 990 is an awesome unit BTW) such as amp under your front speakers, but sources and preamp at the rear of room, then yes the Balanced cable would be the best here, mainly because of the common mode noise rejection.

On the other hand, if your amplifiers are only 6 or so feet away, there really won't be any sonic advantages here. Infact, to "balance" the unbalanced signal, the signal gets split into 2, one side is reversed 180 degrees to be sent over the balanced line, then at the other end, it is reversed again to cancel out any noise that would be picked up by both. Theoretically, this is another 2 steps in processing the signal, so you could potentially loose some sonic material although very slight.

BrentMcGhee

That makes perfect sense.... that is kind of what i was assuming.

Thanks.

beardog03

so I should save my money ?

I was about to pull the trigger on some balanced I/C`s, when I started pondering the very questions raised in this thread..!!

my Pre and amp would get the balanced I/C, and from CDP to pre would be Rca type..

heiney9

beardog03 wrote:

so I should save my money ?

I was about to pull the trigger on some balanced I/C`s, when I started pondering the very questions raised in this thread..!!

my Pre and amp would get the balanced I/C, and from CDP to pre would be Rca type..

Again, unless everything is balanced I don't see an advantage. Just my .02c

H9

Eric W

I would only bother with the balanced if you are either running a long line between the preamp and the amp, or if you have a ground loop problem between the preamp and the amp.

Or, if you're a hobbyist and just want to build a balanced circuit, then by all means go for it...

PS I wish the consumer industry used XLR connectors to begin with, RCA's are horrible.