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| quote: | Originally posted by SgtFoo
so you're after the highest possible quality, and yet, you don't know what balanced or unbalanced is? do some research and then seek the quality. |
Dude there's no need for that - everyone is after the highest possible quality, but at no point did he act arrogant or purport to be any kind of expert in the field. None of us do - we're just here to (a) ask questions or (b) answer them. And it's not as simple as just getting balanced lines when possible and amps just amplifying, that's the reason he asked in the first place.
LANYD, the difference is that an "unbalanced" line has two conductors which each carry a signal (left and right). Since it's not grounded, there may be a slight difference in the impedance between channels, which is precisely what's not balanced. This can create noise. "Balanced" lines solve the problem by having an extra conductor for ground which makes the line impedances equal, i.e. balanced.
In practice, the noise on an unbalanced line is going to be virtually inaudible unless it's being amp'ed through several stages or you have a very long cable (50 ft. or more). You also can't just plug a balanced line into anything and see a benefit - you need a termination that's also balanced and I'm not sure if the HP4 has that. Most headphone amps don't.
Have a look at this link for more information. I seriously doubt that you'd need a balanced line for your headphones; that's used most often for recording things that are very noise-sensitive and have to be amplified a lot, like vocals from a mic.
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