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Noob question around balanced vs unbalanced

fordiebianco

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Dear All,

bought a Hilidac BEAM2SE on recommendation from this forum (not sure what this place has cost me so far in new gear...), just to find out that ShenzhenAudio is unfortunately out of stock. They offered me the 2S instead, which I accepted. Unfortunately just found out that the 2S has balanced output, while my DC Aeon RT has an unbalanced cable.

What to do? Can I still use my headphones or should I buy an adapter?

Many thanks for your help.
 

Jimbob54

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Dear All,

bought a Hilidac BEAM2SE on recommendation from this forum (not sure what this place has cost me so far in new gear...), just to find out that ShenzhenAudio is unfortunately out of stock. They offered me the 2S instead, which I accepted. Unfortunately just found out that the 2S has balanced output, while my DC Aeon RT has an unbalanced cable.

What to do? Can I still use my headphones or should I buy an adapter?

Many thanks for your help.

Simplistically, cancel that order. You can't run unbalanced/ single ended HP from a balanced amp*. You can run balanced HP from a single ended amp using a simple adapter.

To use the Aeon with that amp you would need to get a balanced cable for them which would not be cheap and not cost effective

*there are exceptions, but not ones lay folk like me properly understand. Stick with a "not possible" as the best answer.
 
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fordiebianco

fordiebianco

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Simplistically, cancel that order. You can't run unbalanced/ single ended HP from a balanced amp*. You can run balanced HP from a single ended amp using a simple adapter.

To use the Aeon with that amp you would need to get a balanced cable for them which would not be cheap and not cost effective

*there are exceptions, but not ones lay folk like me properly understand. Stick with a "not possible" as the best answer.

Hi Jimbob,

many thanks for your great reply. Have cancelled the order, @SHENZHENAUDIO have been very helpful, so all is good.
 
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