Balanced vs Single Ended 

Were you testing some recreational drugs during the filming of this?

On a sidenote Josh, I love your new casual "walking around the house" filming style, it gives the whole video a great cozy feel!

I'm really skeptical as to how "better" balanced sounds compared to SE. An up-to-standard SE amp has audibly perfect levels of stereo separation and inaudible noise floors when it comes to measurements. All balanced amps do besides offering more power is make noise floors even less audible than inaudible and stereo separation even more transparent than transparent. Also, XLR has always mainly been meant to be used for studios or live sound setups with long wire runs in order to avoid interference. I really don't think it serves a special purpose for desktop hifi.

I'm a try ALL the amps type of person.

peanut butter m&m's beat them hands down. uwannafitem8?

I am a no money type of guy, one day I will buy a dac, amp and two good headphones, untill there, I'm dac/amp combo, medium headphone.

DT990 can be balanced, I made my DT 770 Balanced, You just need 4pin mini XLR glued into left ear and rewire them a bit, so each speaker has its own wires and thats it. Its easy job and looks like it was meant to be like that + You get removable cables (so You can also use it as 3.5mm or 1/4.)

Single ended all the way. Price to performance will always reign supreme.

I have the jds atom and love it! (Thanks to reviews by you and others.) See no need for balanced...for now. Damn rabbit hole!😂

I must say that you're credibility as a reviewer has taken a severe hit. And that regrettably, you must now fight me. The reason? Coffee Nut M&Ms exist, and are the end game. This is not an opinion, it's a scientific fact. So put 'em up, let's do this.

The Peanut Butter M&Ms are the best, get ready to square up.

if you're looking to modify your beyerdynamics to be able to do balanced, or just want to get rid of the nasty long attached cable, check out my reddit profile! /u/demevalos

I appreciate your neutral approach. But still feel like this whole thing stems from the "bal is better bc it's supposed to be" bias instead of "you might want to invest in a Bal setup cuz your cans are inefficient AF" reality.

I appreciate the attempt at explaining this topic, but you said a few things that I'm not sure are technically correct. Balanced topology (toroidal transformers and whatnot) isn't inherently better in terms of performance - it just happens to be the case that the best SS amps end up using balanced topology for the extra power benefits. So for example, you get 4 times the power with balanced topology. In theory you can make just as clean and well performing SE amps, if not better, just with lower power output, and nobody really makes that (the last I saw was the Arcam rHead, but it's also why the atom performs so well). This is also why there's nothing worse about using SE outputs from OTL or SET tube amps. Going back to single ended is not a concession you have to make when switching to high performance tube amps. If you're driving high impedance or low sensitivity headphones, like some of the ZMF stuff, they'll generally do better on balanced SS amps (or OTL amps) for power reasons - and those amps have been designed specifically for being used balanced for that extra power benefit. You need to be able to output at least 250 mW at 300 ohms, and SE SS amps can't really do that, and so when driving those types of headphones on SE SS amps, it won't sound nearly as good. Another differentiating factor is that often high end SS amps have lower output impedance on the balanced outputs - and this makes them preferable for certain combinations. Take the IHA-6 for example, the balanced out is

Unless there is an "OMG what a difference" effect, I will remain with the unbalanced.

Depends on the amp’s topology and what it supports ‘better.’ Overall neither balanced or singled ended is better than the other. It is all circumstantial. ;)

Lot of general truth in this video. Nice summary. The fact is implementation matters, not the type of output. Look at Chord TT2 for example or other expensive Chord DACs. They are all single ended DAC/amps beating every balanced amps at and below their price point. (TT2 is £4000, Dave is £8000). That said, the vast majority of other amps between £500-3000 will sound better from balanced output. More power equals more clarity, spaciosness, control, separation etc. Most people have amps from this price category, probably the misconception that balanced is always better than single ended originates from here. As I said, implementation is the clue. Chord DACs are a great example for that.

LG V20 + Sennheiser HD 58X + USB Audio Player Pro

Joshua complaining about the inconsistencies of English grammar in certain cases... Me as a Finnish person: "That's cute. Now hold my beer while I'll go through all the wordings for Dog in Finnish".

First off, agree 100% on the M&M's - peanuts are the ultimate. lol I've been through a few headphones and amps and I'm trying to simplify my setup. Previously been through the Balanced/SE debate the only major benefit was really additional power, never noticed a difference really. I've had the Oppo HA-1 and Jotunheim for reference, now I just use a Chord Mojo and am eyeing up the RME ADI-2. :)

I have a Lyr 3, Jotunheim, and Vali 2. IMO the Lyr 3 is the best of the three and is better than the Jot for sound quality, although the Jot is balanced and Lyr 3 is SE. The Jot is the most versatile with it's balanced inputs and outputs along with SE inputs and outputs. It also does really well with certain headphones like the 650. I probably need to try a different balanced amp like the THX 789 or Liquid Carbon X and see if I like it more than the Jot.

Balanced every time for me. My aune stack offers more power through XLR, so for high ohm headphones, I need a balanced cable.

I think the main point there should be is, balanced has more power, and that's pretty much it. For portable device, it's always the case. For desktop devices, it's pretty much always the case, even if some amplifiers are pretty powerful while being single-ended. For transparency purposes, single-ended is actually almost always better. Balanced amplifiers who offer a single-ended output pretty much always, in their specs, have twice the distortion for balanced than for single-ended. That said, connection between DAC and amp should ideally be balanced, to have more for better resistance to interference than single-ended. But it's not like single-ended isn't sufficient for 99.99% of use cases.

My use on SE or balanced totally depends on which amp/dac/headphone combination I am using to get my sound... one change in any category may change everything. Balanced in general is meme to me (and so is the idea of interference unless you have long cable runs or live in a major city area with lots of interference anyhow, or are a stage musician...), unless you need the power... certain headphones really benefit even if it doesn't look like it would on paper... for example a triple driver sounds better balanced for some reason (but you generally would think that you do not need the power here, but for some reason it still has better auditory performance balanced), and so does the 6xx (which is power hungry in contrast). My 58x tends to perform better SE'd, and actually usually sounds worse run balanced... I will only run balanced into my 789, but run whatever out, as the circuit in this amp is better balanced. Also with tube circuits even if they have balanced outputs this is most likely just for show, because most tube circuits themselves on the internals can't be really balanced (unless you have left and right), and even then, most that I see like that still are single ended inputs only (ex: La Figaro)... which begs the question to even bother or not with pure tubes (hybrids or tubes with actual transformers are a different story)... my 95x is only unbalanced... and it's one of my favorites... but have to run an unbalanced dac into it...

I am so new to the headphone game that I can't call myself a SE or BALANCED user. I guess by default SE, but it seems that for amps that offer both options you typically get more output with the balanced connection. I have both the Qudelix 5K and the Questyle M15i and for both of those I try to use 4.4 or 2.5 connections. I only use those with IEMs when I'm out and about, so not at home. Also, I'm not a big fan of IEMs so most of the 4 or 5 IEMs that I have are under $100. One is only about $25. It doesn't seem to make fiscal sense to convert all to balanced connections. For home, right now, I am using a Schiit Magni, so only SE there. At some point I'd like to get the WA7, until then I guess I'll be an SE guy. Also, having a balanced connector doesn't make the headphone balanced, or does it? 🤔 Sorry for the long response to a simple question. 😂Thanks for the great video.

Right now I use custom in ear monitors ( Rhines Stage 5) straight from my phone. Soon I will buy the HD 660S, love their signature. I will just get a 100-200€ DAC/AMP Combo, single ended. Judging from your video balanced seems to make no sense until you spend much more money for the amp. Personally I never had problems with noise or interference. Thank you for the video.

If I'm connecting a DAC to my PC, will USB (PC to DAC) be fine for Balanced output (DAC to Headphone)?

I have a questyle qp2r dap which has balanced and single ended connections.... I always use the balanced..... More power and a cleaner sound which adds a bit of weight to proceedings.... I recently bought a pair of night owls and instantly replaced the cable with a 2.5mm balanced cable..... No regrets!

Hi, Im confused what "PO output" means. I mean, looking at the recommended headphone impedance on the FIIO Q3, there is the BALANCE which is from 16-300ohms and PO which is 16-150ohms. What does PO mean? Thank you

Regan: ".... and you'll always be wrong no matter what you say!..." love that bit. Many of the english quirks are from the different base languages that english was pidgin'd together from.

dude, you're mixing up technical terms. this is kind of an important distinction. the opposite of "balanced" is NOT "single ended", it's "unbalanced". the opposite of "single ended" aka "class A" is "push-pull". the term "single ended" is ONLY referring to a portion of an amplifier circuit where only one voltage polarity is employed. no cables or jacks feature this; the signal waveform swings both to positive and also negative voltages. let's not create confusion trying to discuss an already difficult subject. it comes off sounding like sneaky marketing talk and is very misleading, even if it sounds more pleasant.

Tried to go to your Patreon, but the page says no longer available. Looks like you got purged. I have a specific question about a replacement cable for my setup at my desk. I have an xDuo TA-30 and HiFiMan Sandara. I was a replacement cable the is more comfortable and one for which I do not need an adaptor? Also un $300 would be nice?

I've noticed there are a few newer Dac/Amps with a 4.4 pentacon balanced input like the iFi Signature Dac/Amp for example that has the 4.4 input... but the circuitry inside the Dac/Amp its NOT balanced. So the 4.4 balanced input can be deceptive. Do some in depth research on Dac/Amps with a 4.4 input before buying is the point

I used to have an all balanced setup but now I am back to everything being single ended. I personally don't care about the connection, I just care about what I like the sound of and I happened to find single ended gear I liked better. The power amp for my speakers use to make some static noise through the tweeter even when the volume on the pre was all the way down, it wasn't loud I could only hear it when I got right up to the tweeter but everywhere I read said that it was normal for power amps and then I started buying shielded cables for my system (all audioquest) and at one point I noticed that static noise was completely gone, I don't know what cable or cables did the trick but my whole system is now audioquest and everything is dead silent so I'm happy.

My first dive into balance is with my fiio q1 mk2. I've been using it with my hifiman he-4xx. I'm not sure if there's really an improvement in sound quality but I do notice the higher output in volume that I gained in going balance and it feels like the music is a tad bit "fuller" in laymans term. Overall, I don't regret going balance, but I do think I'm not gonna go into higher tier gears any time soon. I'm quite satisfied with the performance for the time being.

Sony WM1A Walkman --> balanced cable --> MDR-Z1R (no amp). I use the balanced 4.4mm cable because it has more power and the bass sounds deeper/more powerful.

Why do you speak about balance and bring a non balanced amp in to the conversation? Just because it has a 4 pin XLR, it does not make it balanced. SMSL P1, yes that is a balanced amp (and to be honest the only balanced pure amp under $1000 that I know of) but even that has worse numbers then THX 789.887, 888 so I would not jump int to buy it.

Read on HeadFi why balanced offers zero advantages for most users. It's just more expensive. It is only better when the same amp has balanced and SE and the former has better implementation. Well implemented SE is as good as balanced for 99.9% of users not running 20 meter cables or having interference issues. Just pick the right amp. There's a reason Chord does SE only. Read their arguments on HeadFi.

ADHD. I use meds for this... You might consider it. Loved following you along. LOL

I'm a single ended amp person and I'm satisfied with it however I do want to try balanced further down the line.

Without getting to complicated and convoluted what balanced open backs would you or anyone else recommend for gaming and music?. Good imaging and wide to wider sound stage?

I use balanced mostly. Schiit Jotunheium with mulitbit card paired with HD650.

Yeah, English is kind of irrational, but hell - most languages have just grown organically. German, with all their der, die, das and assigning gender to items is loony. And there doesn't seem to b eny hard and fast rule for what is female and male - craziness is in most languages since they're made by people.

Coming from the amp, to the headphones, it's not true balanced. Because true balanced has two signal leads, right? Surely, having only one signal lead makes it, "not true balanced", so, it surely doesn't have common mode rejection, so whats the point? Genuinely curious.

Running a DX3 Pro with HD58X at home and D30 and JDS Labs Atom and HD6XX at work.

Penutbutter m&m are the best type for 2 reasons, 1. They are uniform in shape 2. They are ABSOLITELY DELICIOUS!!!

Very nice and very informative, what' s difference between braided, twisted or regular shielded cables in general. Prefer single-ended based amps, it's cheap 300$ below not harder to find cables.

I use an audio interface (ID22) and it started my journey to having a more powerful headphone amp. I can definitely say single ended is just as good as the amp in my interface. Having said that, I am holding out for the THX 789 for the balanced inputs and something I can build up in the future to handle different sets of headphones.

Balanced is overrated for personal audio. Not sure why big part of the "headphile" community hypes it too much.

him: Mentions DT-990 headphones me: looks over to the DT-900s I just bought. "pwoo."

Can someone explain what headphones can use a balanced output? I just made a open alpha headphone and own a denon 7200. Can either of these run balanced? I just need the higher power (mainly for the alpha)

I use an Audio-gd NFB28 2015 version which is a balanced DAC/amp. I use balanced cables when I can.

I modded my DT 1990 to run balanced just an fyi. Custom cans makes kits to DIY 👍

this si really good at putting it all together but I still dont know what is electronically different? anyone know where I should look?

Peanut butter M&M’s are way better than peanut M&M’s! Have you lost your mind? I almost unsubscribed 🙃

Peanut butter M&M’s are way better than peanut M&M’s! Have you lost your mind? I almost unsubscribed 🙃

I use both, BAL & S/E... sometimes I think that I made up my mind convincing that output from BAL is indeed better but I wouldn't be surprised if I think to listen to BAL and instead my output is S/E... so, in certain case, many variables are in the filed, and for many ears, it's maybe more a belief/"faith" than a real difference to tell BAL is better than S/E.

First-world dilemmas. Correction, first-world dilemmas for the very privileged.

I guess they don’t have peanut butter M&Ms where you live. That’s ok, it’s not your fault.

Currently using RME ADI2-Dac on SE. Waiting for THX789 to ship ( So I'll be able to run Ballanced). Also have Geshelli purple stack.

All M&Ms suck, like all chocolate from the US :D (too much sugar, too little milk, too fake tasting).

THX Monolith desktop amp 788, with menus. A JDS Labs element II, Xduoo portable.

AUNE S9c is a balanced DAC , I’m thinking of getting it

I'm unsubscribing, as M&M's are only meant to be chocolate and any other additives are a mistake

Peanut butter M&Ms are mo betta... Just saying... Thank you for your review.

regular m&ms are the best. if you want to eat a peanut with it boom peanut m&M. want a real peanut butter one you guessed it eat it with peanut butter.

I upgraded amps from the Topping L30 to the Topping A50S. The preamp of the latter is a definite upgrade. For headphones so I can it's not so simple. For single ended connections I didn't notice the difference and I would recommend the L30 because of the lower cost and better form factor, the L30 is much more pleasant to operate. However comparing the A50S with itself, the balanced output does sound like an upgrade over the single ended output. The A50S is probably OK as a first purchase. But I don't think I would recommend it as an upgrade over the L30 (or something equivalent) if your only reason is to have a balanced headphone connection.

Love the Brian Regan reference, iFi has a Zen DAC that is balanced and has MQA, pretty good bang for your buck.

I do not have anything regarding “performance audio” I am learning what I need from you.

Wait but mint eminems though. Not just better candy but better rapper as well.

yeah going balanced through my jotunheim is wayyyy better than going single ended

I dont know what type of guy i am, cause i cant afford 20 dacs and amps...

Peanut m&ms ruin everything that's good about m&ms, 1v1 me

Intro with m&ms... z reviews?? becus of the hands and voice

blue crispy M&M's all day long. I'll fight you on that ;)

Hey Josh, just found this and, yeah man, I found the walk-around refreshing! 😁 I do use both, and if not using IEMs, balanced is my preference. Periapt cables all the way. Cheers.

Single ended with my DT 1990, sounds great.

Octopi is not the correct plural for octopus, it’s either octopuses or octopodes

Shoutout for MADE IN DENMARK! :D

if you havent tried peanut m&m cuz you're allergic to nuts just eat them anyway its worth the pain

Peanut M&Ms, like peanut butter, have no reason to exist.

If you like peanut m&m’s please try peanut butter m&m’s

Peanut M&Ms is what I miss the most being vegan

Please try Fiio BTR5, you might like it!

i love balenced, on my pc setup i have to use a diy-psu and a Di-box because ground loops. so it cost lots more if you have problems. so a not recommended way is to cut ground on the power line, some people do this. i wish me balanced on every better gear over 100 buck's with trs or trrrs or xlr it's way better and you also can connect unbalaced gear.

What the fucks a balanced and single ended pianoist

Classic m&m's are superior in their versatility

I think Josh was slightly tispy in this video.

FiiO BTR5 is the low price one that is good!

PRETZEL M&MS!

Balanced, i can totally hear the clarity and increased power. Once you heard it, you never go back to single ended except for portables as moving and environmental noise always there while moving. Try it yourself get a 200$ fiio x5 3rd, has both plugs to try in same dac/dap thus instant difference. Will i ever use a phone for audio again? heck no and i have a LG v30 with sabre dac.

Fiio btr5 balanced DAC 👍

I use all of it. I basically buy what Zeos recommends most of the time.

Reese's Pieces > M&Ms

PEANUT M&M'S 4LIFE!

Couldn’t we just buy one female (3.5,1/4) to male balance for like 50$ for all headphones?

youre real af for the peanut m&ms

But Josh what about the peanut butter M&Ms?

Close. Almond M&Mrs are the best.

I used to rock my ATH 40x without an amp (I knew I needed one but I couldn't get one) Now I added to my collection the 58x and an Aune X1S 10th anniversary edition. I find that it does sound cleaner and with a more linear power control, plus the experience of turning an analogue knob does add to the listening session enjoyability.