p1 and z1r are both in crinacleâs graph, he graphed them with the apple dongle.
Yep and you have both sets ? what you reckon 
if you have an iem that you think sounds better with more power from the same source, please do a blind test (as i did with s12 comparing SE and BAL at matching volume)and come to your own conclusions.
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I believe that people overhype power but the difference between balanced and single ended isnât just power. Balanced cables and amps function differently to reduce SNR ratio and interference. Probably minimal if you are in low interference environments but still a positive over SE
EDIT: Iâm more familiar with tube amps so this may not apply to these portable ones but more power == more headroom and an overall cleaner presentation for the same volume.
in theory BAL is superior to SE but amir from audio science review says the difference between BAL and SE for iem and headphones is not audible ( and this is the guy that can tell appart compressed from uncompressed audio in blind tests, i cannot 
)
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As you said
DB matching is hard unless you use a DB meter and maybe a two set set upâŠbut that aside some sets need 
not all but some 
to match volume i used a dbmeter app on android playing pink noise in the iem because you are right it is impossible to do by ear (at least for my untrained ears)
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Some more info:
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Dropping two cents here, just to remind people apple dongle in Europe doesnt have the same output power as apple dongle in the US or Asia.
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Man I didnât know that whatâs Apple putting in their US/Asia gear
Every audio gear that is made to be sold in EU is gutted. Easy example is Sony DAPs and Apple dongle. If you buy the EU version, it comes gutted in half due to volume restrictions by the EU laws.
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true but the EU law which requires portable audio devices to restrict volume levels to 85 dB SPL does not apply to computers ( at least it does not with my EU apple dongle dac on my mabook laptop)
They are also bottlenecked on Android phones.
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yes very annoying having to play with uapp, neutron or hiby music app direct bit mode to get full power on usb dongle dac for android
@Ohmboy i think you moved too many of the posts to this thread, just got a notification dating a comment from february about the olinas lol
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Headroom does nothing for you if you never reach an ampâs limits. Balanced has common mode noise rejection to limit interference but you need to build 2 identical opposite phase amplifier for it to be better than single ended. Also tend to have a lower damping factor since it typically has a higher output impedance. It can be better or worse depending on the device and how successful the implementation.
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Isnât that kind of the definition of headroom though? My experience comes from guitar tube amplifiers so itâs a different beast but some amps have very little headroom (volume at 30% starts to distort) while some have a huge amount (volume at 90%). My point is in general more power means more headroom at reasonable volumes. Now would one hear the when things start to get distorted in a headphone amp, idk.
Your point is valid though. If you both amps are equally clean at the db you listen to then it doesnât matter which has more headroom.
Once it distorts, there is no headroom but below that point it makes jack difference as long as overall distortion is below 0.1 % or so. Once you have enough, more wonât help you. Current is something else but not necessarily related to voltage swing which is what headroom refers to.
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No arguments there. For a specific IEM if the SE is giving enough power I donât see why BAL would make much of a difference. There doesnât seem to be any negatives going BAL if you already have the gear to support it though
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