"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in message
...
In article ,
David Looser wrote:
A thread on another group suggested that these are the norm today. Not
being one who avidly reads the Hi-Fi press, is this so? The poster was
adamant it was the *only* way to feed 5.1 speakers etc that have
internal amps, as unbalanced would cause hum etc. This was from the
US, though.

Can't say I've noticed balanced connections on domestic equipment. Are
5.1 speakers normally powered?, the only area where powered speakers
seem to be the norm are as computer speakers, and they never, IME, use
balanced interconnects.

This poster was talking about an AV preamp where all the power amps are
external. Nothing wrong with balanced of course - it's the pro standard -
but a bit OTT for domestic use.

I was looking at a Denon AV pre-amp a while back that had balanced outputs
to connect to external power amps. It was intended for the commercial
sector, but there's no reason why it couldn't be used domestically by those
with the space and the budget.

The thread was about earth loops and he is convinced balanced is the only
way round. Could be in the US all metal cased equipment has to have a
mains safety ground - nothing about their electrics would surprise me. ;-)

It's not necessary to go to full balanced to get over earth loop problems,
differential inputs connected to unbalanced outputs achieves the same thing.

I've got an elderly AV amp - and if you replaced all the phonos with XLRs
it would fill the room. ;-)

Indeed.

David.