SE IN/BAL OUT vs BAL IN/BAL OUT (Topping A50/D50 III)

[vogam]

Hey everyone, hope you're all doing well! I've got a question about my upcoming stack setup. I've gone ahead and ordered the A50 III + D50 III + Balanced TRS Cable, but after taking a closer look at the specs for BAL IN/BAL OUT, I'm starting to second-guess myself about not getting an RCA cable instead. I had this idea that for the best results with balanced output, the whole DAC-AMP chain should be balanced. I know the differences are probably inaudible, but I just want to make sure I'm getting my money's worth for balanced setup...

Spoiler: spec

So, would any of you recommend ditching BAL IN/BAL OUT in favor of SE IN/BAL OUT to drive my Sennheiser HD 800S? Thanks a bunch in advance! And sorry if this has already been discussed somewhere else - I couldn't find any info on it

 

[staticV3]

Hi @vogam! Welcome to ASR.

Effectively, the only difference between D50->RCA->A50 and D50->TRS->A50 will be in loudness.

With the A50 set to the same gain and volume knob position, switching from RCA to TRS will boost volume by 50%.

 

[vogam]

@staticV3 thank you for the quick reply!

So in theory (if I understood this correctly) I could still benefit from potentially getting a bit less distorsion from BAL IN/BAL OUT for just being able to run my amp in a low gain vs medium/high gain to get same volume from RCA DAC/AMP link