It’s easy to get lost chasing specs, topologies, and cable types.
Happens to the best of us, right?
Balanced or single-ended. Differential or ground-referenced. Small signal, big signal. It’s enough to make your head spin. But when we zoom out and look at the system as a whole, things start to make sense.
Small signals—those quiet voltages coming out of a phono stage, DAC, or preamp—need protection. They’re delicate, and the world is noisy. Balanced XLR connections with good common mode rejection can be a game-changer here. They keep noise out and musical truth in.
But once we cross into the power amplifier and speaker side, the game changes. The signal gets big. Strong. Immune to the noise that once threatened it. Now it’s all about the quality of the amplification and the voicing of the system.
Some of the best amps I’ve heard were balanced (like the BHK 600). Others were single ended. What mattered wasn’t the wiring—it was the design, the synergy, and the musicality.
We audiophiles can sometimes get caught up in technical purity. But at the end of the day, the real test is this: when you close your eyes and press play, does it sound like the music is alive in your room?
If it does, then your system’s doing what it should—balanced, unbalanced, or somewhere in between.
