Yeah balanced to SE ok but SE to balanced is a no go.
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Wait, I thought it was the opposite?? 
Balanced putting out more power than SE?
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Balanced outputs way more power. You can convert a balanced termination to a single ended one (example: 4.4mm to 3.5mm using and adaptor) but not the other way around. It can go boom boom
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So erm… Let me get this straight, this little 4.4mm balanced female to 3.5mm male SE is a crime?
I’ve been using this to plug 4.4mm cabled IEM/headphones to the MT-602’s 3.5mm jack. Honest question:
- Is this bad?
- Bad for the amp or for the IEM/headphone?
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No, that’s the right one. You just can’t do 3.5mm female to 4.4mm male 
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Ah, that’s a relief then.
I guess I had the right though about the SE/balanced conversion thing, it’s just that in my mind the way of describing the phenomenon is quite opposite from the general way of explaining it. All good then 
I need to get this idea sorted as well:
When articles or shops say “balanced to single-ended”
The direction of the “to” is always from the dac/Amp to the headphone, right? (I think this is my confusion, I have it the other way around)
Seeking guru @Ohmboy , halp.
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Generally it is preferred in all singal processing conversion to describe in direction from source to the end effector (headphones in that matter) and that should be more common than opposite, however I have seen it being described other way around more than once in foras and even some articles. People generally tend to think from their - user’s perspective (so they want to convert their headphones from SE male plug to balanced output of a source)
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I think I’m at fault being the same camp here… but I have seen both in articles as well so 
So a adapter from 4.4 Bal female to 2.5 bal mele would be ok?
Yes as they are both balanced.
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Yes, balanced to balanced is generally risk free (I mean if you buy something proper from the market, not doing stuff on your own). Keep it mind that some adapters reverse the polarity of the channels, so you’d have Left side signal in R earpiece and vice versa.
Just for sake of knowledge - 4,4 mm pentaconn connector is 5-pin (+/-/+/-/GND) and 2,5 mm is 4 pin (+/-/+/-). In 4,4 GND might be used as additional shielding + it MAY be used as common GND for adapters from BAL 4.4 to SE in fact (but avoid implementation where the R- and L- are short circuited).
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This is completely safe.
There is however, an adapter that claims to work with SE → Balanced.
But I honestly have no idea if its safe or how it works…best to not risk it IMO.
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Yeah, that Adapter is sure to fry any headphones.
Never ever use an Adapter that feeds Bal into a SE Cable.
A Balanced cable with a SE Adapter is Fine. Never go the other way around though.
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I bought this adapter from AliExpress (3.5 Femele to 2.5mm Mele) to use with my single ended IEMs, I was no aware that it was a problem until now. That’s why I hear a lot of noise using this adapter, glad I just used for 5 minutes, the noise was bothering me to much.
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This really needs to be a wide-known common sense knowledge for all audio lovers… Now that I finally understand more about adapters
YES:
- Single End male to Balanced female adapter
- Balanced male to Balanced female adapter
Best AVOID:
- Balanced male to Single End female adapter
Footnote: “to” defined in the sense from where the power source is fed to the gear
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Generally that is not necessary true that all BAL → SE adapters destroys source/headphones. For example this DD adapter most likely works in that way:
Source. headphones
GND → GND
R- → no connection
R+ → R+
L- → no connection
L+ → L+
In the end you receive classic SE output.
Therefore the channel grounds are not short circuited and therefore would not damage internal electronics.
As a rule of thumb I would stick away from those solution though, as it is quite risky solution if you think that you most likely are buying something made in thousand of pieces and it is quite common to see QC problems in even expensive audio pieces
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I’ve just had to read this carefully three times, I must think about it the wrong way 
This works for me (based on cables, adaptors and DAPs I use):
Wee hole to middle stick = ok
Wee hole to big stick = ok
Middle hole to wee or big stick = NOT OK
where:
Wee hole/wee stick = 2.5mm balanced
Big stick = 4.4mm balanced
Middle stick/hole = 3.5mm SE
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