Se or bal

[Alrainbow]

over last week end I moved my stuff Around as my stuff was behind my speakers and about 20 feet or more away and I could not even see the display. Even with my server and iPad as control it still had its issues.
So in moving things around I needed about 50 foot cables from my dac preamp to cross over control box and 25 feet to amps from there. As the amps are right behind each speaker tower
So I bought and average set of rca interconnects.
After I hooked it up my sound for bad
Clear and clean but dull to say the least
This drove me crazy as to why and was I even hearing what I thought . So moved the stuff back just to see and all the greatness came back.
Now I was confused even more than before as I had the proof I was not crazy. How much of what we do or think we hear may or may not be real ? I always wonder of what I think I hear is so and some times have a bit of regret . After all although I am a lisc electrical contractor and electrical engineer it can help but mostly makes me an agnostic of many aspects of this hobby we dwell in.
So what I did is email someone who I can truly count on for an honest answer
My answer was surprising and good at the same time.
It seems SE cannot go the distance that bal can. Now I know most here may know this and even though I am a life long audio head dude this I did not know.
It seems if you go beyond 6 feet or so it does not matter how much you spend. So I bought what I needed and adaptors simple ones to convert SE to BAL and back. The music was back maybe 90 percent. The rest can be had with better grade SE to bal conversion interconnects. I just thought I would share this to help
Others like me who love the magic of great mauic but honestly do not always know how to achieve it. . My next step is getting my cross over modded to fully balanced
It's being mailed to Colorado tomorrow
Over all it's comming together more each time I play
Al.

[mshump]

balanced is much better for long runs and less susceptible to interference

[Rob]

sounds like you're using ICs that are too high in capacitance. The tell tale signs are rolled off highs and its noticeable. Find a good twin-axial cable like Mogami or Canare (pro audio cable used for balanced microphones), Mogami has the lower capacitance of the two. Balanced lines give you greater immunity from RFI and a 6 db bump in gain. its a fallicy to say you MUST use balanced lines for long runs, as long as the input impedance of the 'load' is a factor 10x higher than the source impedance you won't roll off anything.

[Guest]

sounds like you're using ICs that are too high in capacitance. The tell tale signs are rolled off highs and its noticeable. Find a good twin-axial cable like Mogami or Canare (pro audio cable used for balanced microphones), Mogami has the lower capacitance of the two. Balanced lines give you greater immunity from RFI and a 6 db bump in gain. its a fallicy to say you MUST use balanced lines for long runs, as long as the input impedance of the 'load' is a factor 10x higher than the source impedance you won't roll off anything.

Good suggestion! The Mogami won't break the bank and sounds fine; I had a 30ft run of Mogami PA-02. I'm vaguely recalling it's silver coated copper, but memory there is dim. It may be a wee-teeny bit rolled off in the highs but you'll spend a small fortune at those lengths to better its sonics. Just make sure its wired correctly. I prefer balanced. Al, you might want to drop a note to Ralph Karsten at Atma-Sphere to see what (if any) brands he might recommend.

[Alrainbow]

Thanks all for the replies. The mogami was the one suggested to me. They sound alamost as good as SE interconnects that are only 3 feet. The microphones ones is the kind. My situation then was to convert back and forth my 10 or so is lost here I figure. Now Henson or even flex connects by McCormack will cure this.
Although I am getting the cross over made balanced and my external low pass filter as well I still have my SE lampi so I will need at least one set of good SE to balance. Jenkins are cheap about 300 or so for a pair. The flex are about 2K. But according to my friend it's top shelf. For now I use a balanced analog input on msb dac and a set of SE to bal cables short like 2 feet silver
I was never a fan of bal over SE and felt it was just a marketing ploy in this hobby as there is so many. But I now think different. I will not redo my lampi head dac to balanced as it just got back and loaded with the latest updates I love it. And with the new eml globe 45 special editions it's a touch more neutral than the msb is
So over all no loss.
Thanks so much for input in this. My brain and ears are happy.
My mid tweeter amps are aragons 8008BB. any thoughts on amps to try out. I am thinking of Paul's new mono blocks the bhk ones. They have a 30 day return policy. Second is goldmund they are a fast amp. Any thoughts here without going insane please.
Thanks in advance

[Alrainbow]

Mogami gold is the kind I used

[sauerball]

Redco Audio will cut cables to your specified length and let you pick the connectors. Recommended.

http://www.redco.com/

[Alrainbow]

Thanks

[SpectralMorn]

over last week end I moved my stuff Around as my stuff was behind my speakers and about 20 feet or more away and I could not even see the display. Even with my server and iPad as control it still had its issues.
So in moving things around I needed about 50 foot cables from my dac preamp to cross over control box and 25 feet to amps from there. As the amps are right behind each speaker tower
So I bought and average set of rca interconnects.
After I hooked it up my sound for bad
Clear and clean but dull to say the least
This drove me crazy as to why and was I even hearing what I thought . So moved the stuff back just to see and all the greatness came back.
Now I was confused even more than before as I had the proof I was not crazy. How much of what we do or think we hear may or may not be real ? I always wonder of what I think I hear is so and some times have a bit of regret . After all although I am a lisc electrical contractor and electrical engineer it can help but mostly makes me an agnostic of many aspects of this hobby we dwell in.
So what I did is email someone who I can truly count on for an honest answer
My answer was surprising and good at the same time.
It seems SE cannot go the distance that bal can. Now I know most here may know this and even though I am a life long audio head dude this I did not know.
It seems if you go beyond 6 feet or so it does not matter how much you spend. So I bought what I needed and adaptors simple ones to convert SE to BAL and back. The music was back maybe 90 percent. The rest can be had with better grade SE to bal conversion interconnects. I just thought I would share this to help
Others like me who love the magic of great mauic but honestly do not always know how to achieve it. . My next step is getting my cross over modded to fully balanced
It's being mailed to Colorado tomorrow
Over all it's comming together more each time I play
Al.

Its not so much the cables as to the circuit design of the products. In general balanced designs have more voltage output on the audio outputs thus able to send the signal further than a single ended design. Basically signal transmission is much more robust and thus can be sent over longer distances the design of the xlr cables and connectors help reject noise too. I much prefer proper dual differential balanced designs and many bits in my system are designed that way, however there is an increase in cost with separate left and right audio circuits, everything doubled up. Some argue that se designs that are generally simpler are better, but as in all things implementation is everything.

[Quint]

IME, and I'm hardly an expert in the matter, it depends a lot on the equipment being linked. If the gear is differential, I prefer running balanced cables. If not, SE is probably as good, if not better. Just IMHO.

[Quint]

Whoops, I basically repeated--though not as articulately--what Spectral said above. Sorry about that!

[Per Sundell]

I tend to prefer Single-End.

[Guest]

Sometimes I've wondered what a died- in-the-wool single-ender like CJ would sound like if they used balanced circuitry. Would the character of their units fundamentally change? Or put differently, outside the claimed "simplicity" does a designer's sonic goals influence whether he chooses balanced-diff versus single-ended circuit?

[MylesBAstor]

Yeah remind me I am a dinosaur in more than one way. 🤣 SE, vinyl and tape.

[Alrainbow]

I can say in dacs it changes the sound
in Amps for me be it input or headphone output many claim yes but I hear nothing but volume changes.
This if leveled off using my iPhone concluded no such changes.
The dacs were tube style or solid state
the chages were not in tone but in staging for me.
Consider the most expensive amps and preamps were not balanced until more recently I think.
Now interconnects I have not a clue except for what I hear

[Guest]

#12.1

MylesBAstor commented
04-09-2017, 09:27 PM

Yeah remind me I am a dinosaur in more than one way. 🤣 SE, vinyl and tape.

ah yes, Jonathan Richman and The Modern Lovers ... just for you! :-)

or here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACKZ10BrSwk


(heh - I have the album)

[DetroitVinylRob]

Wonder why recording engineers use miles of the stuff (XLR) ahead of what we listen to?...