LCD-X, LCD-XC, LCD-2C, TR-X00 PH, Clear, Arya, Ibasso SR2, Argon MK3 SE, Panda, Mest, Nanna V1, Starlight V4
My IEMs are all 2.5, but clears are the only over ear I have a balanced cable for (actualy, I have one for LCDs, but its XLR and I dont have an adapter)
EDIT: Damn. I havent listed them all out before. I need to do some condensing…
The arya should be 3.5mm right? The clear cable would work with the arya then if you wanted to use balanced on the arya. I don’t have the sr2 anymore but stupid question, would the clear cable connect to the ibasso or is the connector on the clear too large, I think they both use 3.5mm on the cups.
It’s always nice to do once in awhile, reassess your collection and find what you really want to keep and what makes sense to go
That was actualy going to be my next question to you. All 3 use a dual 3.5 and the only recessed one is the clears. do they all use the same wiring? And if they dont, do I chance shorting something? Or will just no sound come out?
EDIT: Purely currious question for you. You have experience with (what seems like) every pieces of gear ever damn made (slightly jealous). Is a lot of that from work? I seem to remeber you mentioned you work in audio production
They should all be compatible with one another as long as you can make sure it actually connects and clicks in there properly (which you should have no issues with the arya, can’t speak for the ibasso from memory)
If that happens you should be fine as I think the chances of shorting are low in this case, it will most likely just not make noise
Ill give it a try on teh SR2 first just to make sure nothing blows up then grab teh arya 
Well shit. I remembered wrong. The clear cable is XLR as well, not 2.5 like I thoyght it was for some reason. Guess ima just have to order cables. Maybe I go cheap for now until I figure out what I wanr
I mean I have a fair amount of experience when it comes to dacs, headphones and headphone amps, and high end iems, a decent amount of experience with speakers and speaker amps, but not a ton of experience (comparatively) with preamps, analog audio formats like vinyl or tape, or home theater or multichannel stuff. But always trying to get more, been doing this stuff as long as I can recall so it’s just accumulated overtime
Regarding working in audio production that’s more a side job, more an audio enthusiast at heart and I wouldn’t call myself super proficient outside of a few things when it comes to production. Although later on I would love to quit my main job and do mastering full time but I really need to get better at my craft (I mainly work more with advertisements for tv and radio and stuff like promotional material, and I’d really like to start getting into working with music instead but that’s a whole different ball game lol). Also in recent years it’s not the most financially wise idea to ditch my main job atm lol
Also being able to lie to myself that I will use some of the stuff for making money from studio work is a great way to justify things that I shouldn’t be getting lol
Ah I figured you would have an adapter
Very fair! Kinda like I am with construction then. I have experience with all the cool toys because my side gig as a contractor let’s me get them, figure out if I will use them enough, and move on.
Lol, again, same place I am with construction. Gotta get a whole different cert level for it to be viable and build up my client bass further as well. Paying someone to sign plans realy cuts down your bottom line…
Hahahahaha. Same experiences just all over the place. Yuuup. Taking that jump is scary and not realy something I can justify right now.
Nah. I didn’t even own a balanced source other than my qudelix until I week and a half ago 
Seeing as any ole 4-pin to XLR adapter is like $50 and all my XLR cables are approximately 37 miles long and about as stiff as my dining room table, I think ima just order a cheap $50 4.4 arya cable off Amazon to test.
I’ve been around people in the industry and it always interested me so I ended up getting into it kinda lol
When you switch to dealing with music, the pay can be all over the place and work is less stable, it’s much more mentally intensive to work on (at least for me), and you have to approach it from a different angle that I don’t think I have really polished yet
Lol well that will explain it, hopefully you can get a balanced cable soon enough. I won’t mention anything about higher end cables until you figure out what phones you want to keep or prune lol. For the mest I can’t say much cable wise since that’s not something I have tried with different cables
Yah. The logistics side of it is why I haven’t jumped too. I have a PE I work with for signing plans and helping with crew for larger projects. Even if I can sign my own plans having to figure out a new crew (something I would 100% need to make the jump worthwhile) isn’t even something I know where to start with -.-
Fair enough on the mest. And yah, i figure going balanced will eb such a big jump from SE on this dap (for the cans I even can run SE considering my LCDs are all 1/4") that it doesn’t matter what cable I get for cursory testing/playing so long as it isn’t complete dogshit.
Just to confirm, does p6p only do balanced LO, right? No true LO on SE? Want to try my micro BL out of it to push arya but it’s se only
All I’ve done is take the 4.4mm bal out and convert it to se with adapters (since I have a 4.4mm to dual 3 pin, and I just used 3 pin to rca cables there) so I really don’t know lol. SE line out worked on the normal p6 so idk
Wait, what? How does that work? I was under the impression there was no way to go bal -> SE without an active converter (amp output stage for example)
Edit: I’ll just try it on se. Am out and about for a bit longer so I asked since I couldn’t just try
You can go from BAL > SE pretty easily, all the bal to se cables I use drop the negative pin which gives me a SE signal a ok. But going from SE > BAL requires an active converter
This is the dead opposite of everything I have ever heard. Doesn’t just dropping the negative signal give you an open circuit that is super hard on the amp? Also, don’t you have to use a 4.4 so you have a ground pin as well? There is no ground on 2.5 for sure, and I’m pretty sure xlr is the same, no?
Edit: also, for se -> bal i am soecificaly talking about se out of amp into bal connector, not se dac -> bal amp. I was pretty sure without an active input stage to convert it, it had to be the same format out of dac into amp
Huh, I’ve always done that and it’s been fine, same with a ton of people I know. As long as you have a properly constructed converter cable you should be just fine without risking damage to either device. You can sometimes have it where levels end up being too high for the devices input but with anything that has volume control that shouldn’t be an issue nor cause damage. The Pro in line out mode is actually a preamp mode as it has volume control so you can just do that to set levels accordingly. I don’t have a big technical background on why that works fine, but I can say that I’ve done that along time and never had any issues with it. Sometimes it’s even preferable to using a bal to se transformer (as that is technically the right way to do it) as sometimes the transformers add more coloration and change the sound more than just doing a passive conversion to se. It all depends though I guess
Keep in mind my chain is the 4.4mm into dap, then the 4.4mm goes into dual 3 pin, and then I use 3 pin to rca cables and it works just fine. Don’t try and convert a balanced signal to se for headphones as that’s typically always bad news (like don’t convert a 4 pin headphone out to single ended)
Can’t answer that but it would be wise to do that most likely
Nope
For 4 pin there is no ground, for 3 pin there is a ground
Depends. Most differential line drivers are fine with one negative or positive being open circuit. Transformer balanced is also fine (shorting out one winding is not ideal, but works).
In balanced, there is no ground, only shield (which does not carry signal).
Single ended into balanced is simple:
| Pin | Positive Signal | Negative Signal | Shield |
|---|---|---|---|
| Signal | + | ||
| Ground | + |
Well fuck. Leaving 2 live open circuits sketches me the fuck out, but I trust both of yall…
As for the preamp function of the p6p, does that mean no true LO? I don’t think the volume control is a passive attenuator, so is it dsp then? Iirc without one of the two you can’t do lo and have variable output.
But this shield ground has to be used for the conversion no? If not, where is the “return” line wired to?
I recall seeing this screenshot which might explain more, I’ve just maxed the preamp volume and used that for line out (or a few notches back if needed)
Oh shit. So it does just use a digital controlled analogue attenuator. Thats pretty fucking cool. Also means the amp stage of the p6p is purely a power amp which us also pretty dope
Edit: if that’s the case, maybe LO will give lower volume on sensitive cans? Guess I’ll have to wait to try it on something that won’t blow up before I put mest on it, but still quite interesting.
Edit2: is there chance of damage from over drawing the circuitry if you use LO into cans?
