Maybe a short explanation to balanced. Balanced for headphones is pretty much an audiophile gimmick. Balanced is used in long runs (tens of meters and more) of signal cable especially in electrically noisy environments where it provides noise rejection. For the 1 or something meter of headphone cable balanced makes no sense whatsoever.Thanks a lot
Please don't be angry if I correct you, but that is absolutely wrong and especially confusing to beginners.Maybe a short explanation to balanced. Balanced for headphones is pretty much an audiophile gimmick. Balanced is used in long runs (tens of meters and more) of signal cable especially in electrically noisy environments where it provides noise rejection. For the 1 or something meter of headphone cable balanced makes no sense whatsoever.
But only if it’s the same amps. And the most gain will probably be with high impedance headphones that need voltage, not current. The op has low impedance headphones.This results in twice the power, which isn't necessarily stupid,
No. Balanced headphone cables are snake oil. Single ended cables can easily achieve audibly perfect performance, noise rejection doesn’t matter for headphones like it does for microphones with long cables and ground loops can’t be caused by headphones because they are not grounded. Those are the reasons for balanced cables with other equipment and they don’t apply. Plenty of single ended (three pin) headphone amps can get to transparent levels of cross-talk immunity. A bunch of amps with ‘balanced’ four-pin outputs are really just single ended internally.With balanced cable itsmore wide stage or good stereo seperations or not.. Please users answer that.
Though there is a case for improved separation with balanced.No. Balanced headphone cables are snake oil. Single ended cables can easily achieve audibly perfect performance, noise rejection doesn’t matter for headphones like it does for microphones with long cables and ground loops can’t be caused by headphones because they are not grounded. Those are the reasons for balanced cables with other equipment and they don’t apply. Plenty of single ended (three pin) headphone amps can get to transparent levels of cross-talk immunity. A bunch of amps with ‘balanced’ four-pin outputs are really just single ended internally.
Though there is a case for improved separation with balanced.
Whether this is audible even with long cables is another matter. I have no data for that.
But measuring crosstalk in an amp tells us nothing about the impact of shared return path in unbalanced headphone cables.…
No. You need data. Amir has measured a ton of headphone amps. Plenty of amps have crosstalk in the inaudible range. Because of auditory masking, crosstalk is almost impossible to perceive.
The crosstalk should be dominated by the headphone amps output impedance rather than the minuscule cable impedance of the ground channel.But measuring crosstalk in an amp tells us nothing about the impact of shared return path in unbalanced headphone cables.
The amp output impedance isn't shared by the two drivers, like the shared return path is. For the purposes of this discussion, I think the amp output impedance is irrelevant.The crosstalk should be dominated by the headphone amps output impedance rather than the minuscule cable impedance of the ground channel.
Most IEM cables measure about 0.2 ohms vs. loads of 20 ohms or more and amp output impedances which can be much higher than the cable.