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Topic: Technical question about XLR converters (Read 1968 times) previous topic - next topic
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Technical question about XLR converters

I'm planning on getting a pair of Sennheiser HD800s and an RME ADI-2 amp/dac.
However whilst the Sennheiser HD800s comes with a lovely XLR cable, the RME ADI-2 amp/dac doesn't have an XLR input.

My question is: Would I still be getting the benefit of XLR if I used an XLR to 6.3mm jack converter?

This question is probably born out of complete technical ignorance, so let me add this just to show I'm not a complete noob.
As I understand it XLR repeats the signal over two wires which means in case of electrical interference there will be a second untainted signal. But it isn't clear to me exactly how the type of jack affects this.
Hhhmmmm Croissants.....

Re: Technical question about XLR converters

Reply #1
Check how many pins are in the XLR plug on the headphone cable. If it's a single XLR, it's probably 4-pin, not 3-pin.

Re: Technical question about XLR converters

Reply #2
You might be confusing the inputs and outputs. The outputs available appear to be balanced or unbalanced and you'd need a 4-pin XLR to have a balanced output to a pair of (stereo) headphones, not 3-pin. If your headphones have a 3-pin, they can only be connected to an unbalanced output, with or without the XLR/6.3mm adapter.

Bearing in mind that headphones are a low impedance (relatively, anyway), there is not really any advantage to using a balanced output in terms of interference suppression although it might allow higher volumes for a given power supply. Balanced connections are usually needed only on long cable-runs and in areas where interference is high.

Your understanding of the benefits of balanced is flawed. Essentially, the signal is transmitted over two wires and the polarity on each wire is opposite to the other. This means that any signal common to both (interference, noise etc) is cancelled, or nearly so. The point is not to provide an "untainted" signal on one wire, since they'll both be subject to the same interference and that wouldn't work.

Re: Technical question about XLR converters

Reply #3
A balanced connection in audio means you have the signal (hot) , the inverse (cold) and a ground.
At the receiver hot and cold are compared and any difference between the two is rejected as being noise.

Talking headphones, normally you have a TRS jack hence; left, right and a common ground.
You can replace this by left, ground left, right , ground right.
Indeed exactly as we connect speakers to an amp, 2 wires per channel.
For some reason or other in the headphone world this is called a balanced connection.
In reality it is as balanced as our speaker wires are so not balanced at all.

As the RME headphone out is  TRS , you won’t improve by using a XLR.
The TRS is rated as Max power @ 0.001% THD: 1.5 W per channel
More than enough to drive the HD800
Bet you won’t survive full power without some hearing damage.
TheWellTemperedComputer.com

 

Re: Technical question about XLR converters

Reply #4
Check how many pins are in the XLR plug on the headphone cable. If it's a single XLR, it's probably 4-pin, not 3-pin.
You might be confusing the inputs and outputs. The outputs available appear to be balanced or unbalanced and you'd need a 4-pin XLR to have a balanced output to a pair of (stereo) headphones, not 3-pin. If your headphones have a 3-pin, they can only be connected to an unbalanced output, with or without the XLR/6.3mm adapter.
I probably should have mentioned that the picture was only for reference, so you'd have an idea what I was talking about.
I didn't really check the specific connection type as it was close enough to what I had in mind.
Your understanding of the benefits of balanced is flawed.
So much for me showing I'm not a complete noob :D
As the RME headphone out is  TRS , you won’t improve by using a XLR.
The TRS is rated as Max power @ 0.001% THD: 1.5 W per channel
More than enough to drive the HD800
Bet you won’t survive full power without some hearing damage.
Moral of the story: I need to start reading up on actual technical data as oppose to mindlessly following the opinions of "audiophiles" online..............but 5000$ USB cables do make a difference right! (lol jk)
Hhhmmmm Croissants.....