olds1959special
Major Contributor
I’m using my Apogee Duet 3 as a source, and Topping A70 Pro as a preamp. Since the balanced signal is being converted to single ended in the pre-amp for my speaker amps, will sound quality suffer?
-
Welcome to ASR. There are many reviews of audio hardware and expert members to help answer your questions. Click here to have your audio equipment measured for free!
Balanced to unbalanced conversion in preamp?
- Thread starter olds1959special
- Start date
solderdude
Grand Contributor
No.
Balanced (differential actually) is just 2x the exact same signal but inverted opposite each other.
The advantage of differential it has is that the ground connection is not really needed for signal transfer and thus prevents ground loop currents to enter the signal path.
Ground loop currents can still be there though but when properly designed do not enter the audio signal.
With SE signals the ground connection is part of the signal path and unwanted loop currents can create (audible) 'unwanted' signals that are added to the audio signal.
Note the 'exact same signal' part.
Balanced (differential actually) is just 2x the exact same signal but inverted opposite each other.
The advantage of differential it has is that the ground connection is not really needed for signal transfer and thus prevents ground loop currents to enter the signal path.
Ground loop currents can still be there though but when properly designed do not enter the audio signal.
With SE signals the ground connection is part of the signal path and unwanted loop currents can create (audible) 'unwanted' signals that are added to the audio signal.
Note the 'exact same signal' part.
Last edited:
Speedskater
Major Contributor
Balanced interconnects are a very good thing. But balanced internal circuits are another ballgame. Nothing wrong with them, but they are an expensive and engineering demanding choice.
And I would argue, unnecessary and possibly less functional than unbalanced internal circuitry due to the difficulty in maintaining common-mode rejection over the whole signal path...which is probably what you meant by 'engineering demanding' above.
It's yet another audiophile stupidity to claim a fully balanced amplifier is better than one with balanced I/O but unbalanced in between. It's almost certainly worse.
S
The one thing you can say with absolute certainty is that it'll be more expensive.
When equipment designers manage to get exemplary performance out of "lowly" single-ended circuitry the way Topping does, the benefits of going fully balanced are quite dubious indeed.
KSTR
Major Contributor
Balanced power amp outputs have their place when a) there is only a low supply voltage or b) when the supply is only a single rail.
Any proper balanced power amplifier with balanced or unbalanced input comprises of a "re-balancer" at the input, extracting the payload signal and re-referencing it symmetrically to the local gound as one certainly doesn't want to let the common-mode noise signals propagate through the whole amp.
As we have seen sadly, some power amps with balanced inputs don't do that correctly, rather they rely on actual symmetry of the drive signal -- completely against what balanced interconnections are supposed to do, extracting the difference signal.
For the OP's question, converting balanced to unbalanced is non-critical bread-and-butter circuitry and usually without any compromise in quality.
Any proper balanced power amplifier with balanced or unbalanced input comprises of a "re-balancer" at the input, extracting the payload signal and re-referencing it symmetrically to the local gound as one certainly doesn't want to let the common-mode noise signals propagate through the whole amp.
As we have seen sadly, some power amps with balanced inputs don't do that correctly, rather they rely on actual symmetry of the drive signal -- completely against what balanced interconnections are supposed to do, extracting the difference signal.
For the OP's question, converting balanced to unbalanced is non-critical bread-and-butter circuitry and usually without any compromise in quality.
Similar threads
