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Balanced vs Unbalanced and Volume

Ron Texas

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Say you have a DAC with balanced and unbalanced outputs and an amplifier with balanced and unbalanced inputs. Of course you would connect them balanced. However, I want to know would the balanced connection be capable of 6db higher volume than the unbalanced connection, assuming neither causes clipping?
 

DonH56

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Depends on the design. Some components include a 2x gain stage in the single-ended path to offset the higher output. If not, then yes.
 
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Ron Texas

Ron Texas

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Depends on the design. Some components include a 2x gain stage in the single-ended path to offset the higher output. If not, then yes.

How common is the 2x gain stage? Do you know if it is present in stock Hypex or Ice modules?
 

DonH56

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How common is the 2x gain stage? Do you know if it is present in stock Hypex or Ice modules?

No idea, sorry. I would guess not all that common since it cheaper and easier to just grab one side of a differential output without any extra signal conditioning.
 
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Ron Texas

Ron Texas

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No idea, sorry. I would guess not all that common since it cheaper and easier to just grab one side of a differential output without any extra signal conditioning.

Makes sense to me. I saw somewhere all they do is ground the negative input.
 
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Ron Texas

Ron Texas

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I found I had a solution right in the house. My Grace M9xx will output over 5V unbalanced. There is a loss of SINAD of 10db, but even so it is quieter than all but the very best measuring amplifiers out there.
 
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