Maybe the OP is talking about his DAC? Some DACs hit 5V with balanced output. Mine is 2.25V single ended and 4.5V running balanced for example. They Wyred4Sound DACs output 5.2V balanced.
Sorry, I lost track of this thread. But yes, this is exactly the situation I'm asking about. I have a DAC that has a standard ~2.5V single-ended output and a 5V balanced output. I was wondering if hooking up the balanced output on the DAC to the Virtue amps via a 3-pin XLR -> RCA adapter would be dangerous or not.
Looks like Seth is saying that more than 2.5V is a no-no?
I know that going balanced -> single ended via an adapter does not normally come with any sonic benefits, I was just looking for a way to connect the DAC to 2 amps without having to switch cables.
Edit: To complicate matters, the DAC can be switched to either be fixed or variable output (it has it's own volume control). So if the voltage is too high on "fixed" mode, I suppose I could run at half volume on "variable" mode (as long as I made sure that it did not output more than 2.5V..)