Balanced ins and Deccas

摘要

I would be interested in hearing your reviewers thoughts on the seeming reluctance of the hi-fi world to adopt balanced phono inputs. When it comes to microphones, no one would dream of using any half-decent mic into an unbalanced input. Yet the signal levels and impedances involved are comparable with those of moving-coil phono cartridges. Even more bizarrely, if a phono amp uses a transformer input it inherently has a balanced input, which is then unbalanced by using RCA connectors! Can it really be that the need for a new tonearm lead is such an impediment to the use of balanced inputs? I currently use a Creek Wyndsor phono amp [see HFN Jan '12], one of the attractions being that it offers balanced inputs, even if they are via horrible mini DINs.