While I enjoy a good rabbit hole about as much as anybody, isn’t it OP’s question “is it necessary?”
I would venture to say that there is no real world difference between an RCA or XLR connection- everything else being equal.
Yes. If you had a very low gain and power and balanced amp, you might be able to notice the higher voltage from the balanced input from the dac, but especially with the 789, there is almost no way you would notice this in normal listening
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my headphones the sendy aiva’s only have a 32 ohm impedance. which i would think are easy to drive. the more i read this thread the less inclined i am to spend the money on balanced DAC and cables and adapters. especially when i could spend that money on another pair of headphones.
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Pretty much yeah, that would give you more performance per dollar (and potentially more enjoyment). If you truly wanted a balanced dac, you could get a massdrop sdac balanced, otherwise the topping d10 will do you more then fine (if you only need usb input)