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kukkurovaca
323
Mar 15, 2018
For convenience, here's a list of some affordable balanced stuff:
Portable
Not fully balanced, amp only: Walnut F1 ($30)
Not fully balanced, dac/amp: Fiio Q1MKII ($100)
Fully balanced, amp only: iBasso PB3 ($200) (SE input only)
Fully balanced, DAP with dac/amp function: Shanling M3s ($280)
Fully balanced, dac/amp: Sabaj DA3 ($99) RHA Dacamp L1 ($260) (Uncommon balanced connector) Hidizs DH1000 ($270 msrp) Fiio Q5 ($350)
Desktop
Dac/amp: Topping DX7 ($400) Fostex HPA4BL ($480)
Amp only Aune X7s ($300) (SE input only) Massdrop Liquid Carbon Massdrop x THX 789 ($350) Schitt Jotunheim ($400)
thevoid
12
Mar 16, 2018
kukkurovacaI am wondering how do you differentiate fully balanced from non? Do you have to probe with a multimeter or read from circuit diagrams? I don't think they will write that out on the box
kukkurovaca
323
Mar 16, 2018
thevoidIn the case of the Walnut F1, folks have opened it up to mod it. In the case of the Fiio Q1MKII, IIRC they put out an image showing the design. In both cases I believe there's a single opamp and then two buffers feeding the balanced output. I don't think there's anything wrong about those designs, btw. (I've got an F1, it's a great deal) But
cheese528
7
Mar 16, 2018
kukkurovacaDo you know if the balanced output from a Focusrite 6i6 is decent, or is it those fully balanced outputs that have been mentioned before?
EDIT: changed 'fake' to fully to use the correct terminology.
kukkurovaca
323
Mar 17, 2018
cheese528I don't know about the Focusrite, but I wouldn't necessarily sweat the distinction between fully and partially balanced designs. Balanced vs. single-ended is already usually a subtle distinction and fully vs. partially balanced is even more so.
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