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

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

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.

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.)

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

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

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.

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.

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

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!😂

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

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. :)

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".

youre real af for the peanut m&ms

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.

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.

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

Balanced for Class A, Single-Ended for Tubes. Have a DX7S DAC going balanced into my Jotunheim, driving my HD660s off of it balanced. I ordered a Feliks Audio Espressivo MKII for a tube amp, what i will do is hook it up to my DAC via single-ended as it supports single-ended only. Also have an Aeolus on order, so when that comes will work well with both amps i assume (already have the balanced custom cable for it here as well as a balanced-to-1/4" adapter for when id'e like to tube it). And in the near future somewhere in Sep my THX 789 will arrive according to Massdrop and will replace my Jut which will retire, to my office, to assist me, work, less.

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!

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 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.

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.

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.

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. ;)

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.

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.

New to high quality audio. But I just wanted to remake as I am learning, is that there is even a difference between True Balanced and Balanced. So that maybe another considerable factor, that many company's will actually take the shortcut to cut costs by using an inverter. But I really enjoy your videos, they are very pristine!

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.

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

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.

Great, straight to the point explanation. I currently use single ended, but about to pick up some speakers for my desk which are powered, but need to be able to connect through my PC. This review helped me to figure out which direction I am going to go. Thanks!

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.

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

Hey Joshua, What a great and well informed video!! For me the ethos of balanced signals is they're great for long cable runs (10-100m) but also they are invaluable for "protecting" quiet signals from noise (like

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

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

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...

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.

I'm just starting out on the audiophile journey, and I have the HD 58X on the stock SE cable. So far, I'm running on no amp or aftermarket DAC, and things sound great. But I realize that I'm going to have to go balanced if I plan to get serious down the line. I have a 1.2 m balanced cable for the Sennheiser HD 580/600 connector that terminates at a 4.4 mm male Pentaconn connector, a 4.4 to 2.5 mm adapter, and a FiiO BTR5 2021 on the way here. Eventually, I will buy a desktop DAC and amp setup, but as I'm in the process of moving, I don't want to get anything bulky yet.

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

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

I'm single ended everything. My headphone setup is a schiit fulla 2 -> Grado SR 60e, and my speaker setup is Bluesound Node 2 > PS Audio Perfectwave 2 DAC > Marantz PM15s1 > DIY SEAS Thor speakers. also a Rega RP1 turntable

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

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.

Single ended with my DT 1990, sounds great.

i was looking for an explanation and was happy when i saw this title from your channel

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.

Audio does my head in & trying to garner information about it can be a minefield in itself, tho, THF, this has improved dramatically over the last couple of years. Of course, there are so many varieties of end-users their budgets & the variety of mediums/equipment, that's it's hard to cater to all & even harder to cater for system set-ups that allow expansion as it were. I may well be losing you here (I'm often lost in this arena) so let me give you what I believe to be a common usage that is, IMO, given little consideration: PC/Gamer (plays games - the branding irks) /Movies/headphones up to $£€200 (650's)/Studio Monitors (EMI is a big issue here)/ looking to get into vinyl (complementary equipment, separate systems or crossover). I've so many wires coming from monitors, keyboards, mice, chargers ETC that Balanced is my only option - On recommendations and my lack of understanding I've bought a Syba Sonic USB DAC (headphone & mic inputs [hard to find a couple of years ago!] for the Hyperx + unbalanced outs) which helped clean up a lot of noise from my PC to JBL305s, however, they still pick up mouse movements, such as scrolling & at high volume the hum is too much. Initially also opted for a high-end MOBO (motherboard on my computer build) with Japanese capacitors + shielding for improved audio, which I now believe to be folly - A dedicated soundcard was probably a better route? I've had a Focusrite Scarlett Solo (3rd gen) recommended to me for the balanced outs but I'm prob going to buy the 2i2 (3rd gen) instead because the former plays both outputs simultaneously. I'm also waiting on an FX Audio DAC-X6 which I'm now not even sure I need + unbalance outs. It all gives me a headache - I wish there was one-box to rule them all without ruining my pocket. At some point in the near future, I'll be looking to get the Fluance RT85 & that's not so much of a problem as there are plenty of guides/system builds to go off, however, none that accommodate existing desktop configs as outline above & who knows (I certainly don't), perhaps with good reason? Ranted on a tad - the expression of someone who has a hard time grasping audio & the expression of such.

Well there is the Fiio Q1 Mark 2 which is a $100 DAP; but that's primarily a mobile DAP. They also make a more PC DAP called the Fiio K3 but it is also a pretty small DAP and only has the same quality of the Q1 Mark 2. But I use the Ether CX with my Fiio Q1 Mark 2 single ended as I don't have an XLR to 2.5mm adapter. I'm considering just getting monoprice's THX DAC/ amp.

Very helpful review!!!Thank you Joshua!!

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.

balanced for headphones is just to 2 mono amps, so separated ground there is no noise floor reduction because there is no phase inversion {the plus side is less cross talk} but if you want to now more google it. so any headphone can be made balanced.

I have the Geshelli Labs Enog 2 outputting the Archel Pro and the Loxjie P20 via balanced. I also have the Aune X1S outputting to the X7S. I also have the Monoprice Monolith THX AAA 788 balanced amp and it is also outputting to a MCTH and an APPJ PA1502A tube amp.

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

I run my Yamaha HS 7s and my Sennheiser HD650s(balanced) through my Schitt Jotunheim. Sound is amazing. Looking to get the THX in the future for comparison. Great vids! Keep them coming! 9

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

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.

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

Monolith - THX AAA Balance Dac & Amp. I now fully understand what clean power is. I use balanced on 3 headphones and single-ended on my DT 177X - no problem.

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

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

My setup is mostly single ended, ither from the turntable through preamp or the Grace SDAC both are RCA and go to ither a speaker amp or the Cavalli Hybrid Tube, but from there it's balanced to the hd6xx or my mod of the T50mk2, and soon to arrive the Hifiman xx

Haven't spend a single cent on Balance equipments & I'm about to throw all of my hard earned money onto it soon!

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.

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

Classic m&m's are superior in their versatility

I got my DT 880 600ohm recabled for balanced drive. It sounds amazing, but yeah, it was very expensive.

I'm on the balanced cables with hd700 /shure se846 into a Pono player. Really enjoy the experience!

M&M with brownies are tooooooo goooooood

SE using a HeadRoom Ultra Desktop Amp. If I'm not mistaken Tyll Hertsens had his hand in creating this beast!!

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

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

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

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

Single ended sounds smoother because it lacks the common noise rejection of having two separate amplification channels of balanced. Balanced has a blacker background and more power due to the separate amp channels. SE is harder to get to sound right but is a purer signal because it doesn't have to go through so many other components first.

I LOVE balanced out of my DAP (Sony NW-ZX300). Big difference to SE. I wanted to try a balanced amp so I bought a Loxjie P20. Need to get a balanced DAC to make the final decision on this.

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

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

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

You might look into the NEW Schiit Freya S and + preamplifiers. It may be the best approach when seeking a balanced system . From their website: Nexus seamlessly converts single-ended to balanced and balanced to single-ended, in a single, discrete, current-feedback gain stage. Cheers!

Hehehe, the thumbnail says "Ballsy"

Try the pretzel m&ms. The peanut WERE the best, believe me. Pretzel is where it's at, now.

you touched there on an important detail, you said some headphones cant use balanced output, but then you proceeded to say that it is like that because they have fixed wires. So my question is: if you mod the headphones and create a chance to have the headphones receiving a detachable cable can't you just use a regular balance cable and connect it to the new connector on the headphones?

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.

5:39 ducks and deeeeeeks

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.

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

Noo, peanut butter m&ms.

Single ended - cables are waaaaayyyyy too expensive. Until I decide to really fork out some cash I'm quite happy with the SE performance of my Sennheiser HD800 & Audeze LCD2 Fazor with the Audio-GD R2R11 at home and the Fiio FA7 with my Dragonfly Red or the Ifi XDSD on the go.

You can balance mod a headphone with a hard wired cable though, it's just a little more work.

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

My setup is: SMSL SU-8 DAC, SMSL SH-8 amp and Massdrop Cavalli Hybrid amp. For Headphones HD6xx and HE4xx.

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 agree the peanut m&ms are the best ❤

Shoutout for MADE IN DENMARK! :D

@Josh, love this walking man format! Do you prefer running your Clear balanced? I have Clear Professional but I’m thinking about getting a balanced amp and cable for it.

Why did you grabbing the M&M's make me laugh?

Nice video as always