Fully Balanced Dual mono Mainline?

NightPhotographer · 1001

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Offline NightPhotographer

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on: June 06, 2019, 01:59:59 PM
Hi
Is there anybody interested in seeing a fully balanced dual mono Mainline beside me? Probably, we can convince Doc to come up with one  ;D
Cheers



Offline Doc B.

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Reply #1 on: June 06, 2019, 04:44:26 PM
The easy way to convince me is to send 25 orders my way. With separate current sources and shunt regulators for each channel the power supply is as good as dual mono in terms of isolation. What precisely do you mean by "fully balanced"? Do you mean balanced inputs and outputs?

Dan "Doc B." Schmalle
President For Life
Bottlehead Corp.


Offline Paul Birkeland

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Reply #2 on: June 07, 2019, 04:58:10 AM
Is there anybody interested in seeing a fully balanced dual mono Mainline beside me?
So you want a Mainline that's about twice the price with more noise, higher output impedance, not enough gain, and a higher noise floor? 

"Fully Balanced" is a very imprecisely used marketing term by a few manufacturers.  We have evaluated plenty of differential and push-pull circuits over the years and we don't plan to offer any.  (They actually are simpler and more cost effective to implement in many cases)

Paul "PB" Birkeland

Bottlehead Grunt & The Repro Man


Deke609

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Reply #3 on: June 07, 2019, 05:14:14 AM
more noise, higher output impedance, not enough gain, and a higher noise floor

I'm in! You had me at "more noise"  ;D



Offline NightPhotographer

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Reply #4 on: June 07, 2019, 07:47:19 PM
The easy way to convince me is to send 25 orders my way. With separate current sources and shunt regulators for each channel the power supply is as good as dual mono in terms of isolation. What precisely do you mean by "fully balanced"? Do you mean balanced inputs and outputs?

I mean fully symmetrical. My system from the cartridge up to my headphone is fully symmetrical but sometimes, I miss my days with Mainline



Offline NightPhotographer

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Reply #5 on: June 07, 2019, 08:01:01 PM
So you want a Mainline that's about twice the price with more noise, higher output impedance, not enough gain, and a higher noise floor? 

"Fully Balanced" is a very imprecisely used marketing term by a few manufacturers.  We have evaluated plenty of differential and push-pull circuits over the years and we don't plan to offer any.  (They actually are simpler and more cost effective to implement in many cases)

I'm surprised you said that. I've always had problem with hum till I changed my tonearm wiring to floating balance and went for fully differential phono stage and amplifier. I know it's one of those controversial audiophile's topic without an end to it but I, personally, saw the benefit. Also more power output and better separation are good to have IMHO



Offline Paul Birkeland

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Reply #6 on: June 08, 2019, 06:02:02 AM
I'm surprised you said that. I've always had problem with hum till I changed my tonearm wiring to floating balance

Using balanced connections to reduce noise pickup is really useful for super long cable runs, especially when you have two components on different AC line circuits.  For hum with tonearm wiring, there are other intricacies to consider to get things nice and quiet.

I do not believe that a differential Mainline would have better channel separation than what we sell.  I do believe that it would sound substantially worse. 

Paul "PB" Birkeland

Bottlehead Grunt & The Repro Man