Is the Stratos really balanced ?

nickspicks · « **on:** 11 Dec 2007, 07:45 pm »

I know its got an XLR input...
but it doesn't look balanced to me. when I opened up the amp all I see is a separate run of wire jumped off of the RCA input. that wire (single conductor and shield) then go to pins 1 and 2 of the XLR input.

whats the point ?
bummer. I really wanted to use the balanced output of my Apogee miniDAC to run into these wonderful monoblocks I have. but I'll have to build myslelf a custom cable and ground the - lead at the amp end.
otherwise, its a 3.5mm jack line output from the Apogee > RCA inputs on the stratos monos.

mgalusha · « **Reply #1 on:** 11 Dec 2007, 09:04 pm »

No it's not. However if you ground pin 3 of the XLR jack you can run balanced cables from your balanced source and keep most of the advantages of using balanced runs - the lower noise.

nickspicks · « **Reply #2 on:** 12 Dec 2007, 02:31 am »

would it be best to ground the jack itself (the panel mounted jack, that is), or the plug on the cable feeding it?
I assume the cable...or else I figure it would have been designed that way ??

mgalusha · « **Reply #3 on:** 12 Dec 2007, 04:01 am »

I would do it on the jack so your cable is still "normal" and won't need to be altered to use with other balanced gear. I believe the jacks were put there mainly for convenience as they are simply wired in parallel with the RCA jacks. I'd just run a small wire from pin 3 (-) to pin 1 (gnd) and call it good. This will have zero effect on the RCA input and will only make a difference when driving it from a balanced source. The - and ground need to be tied together at the receiving end and not the source.

mike

KBK · « **Reply #4 on:** 15 Dec 2007, 07:07 pm »

The advantages of balanced don't really work in the short runs with relatively low noise that we have in houses. It is a fallacy to believe that balanced is inherently superior. I think that balanced is valid at 10-20-30M runs with 24 'signal' snakes in studio and pro apps....But this is far from true in the given home.

jreinhart · « **Reply #5 on:** 17 Dec 2007, 03:56 pm »

Mr. Tanner, president of Bryston, warned me that the floating ground must not be grounded or else my balanced crossovers would become electronic junk. This has been confirmed by other companies such as Cardas which will make a floating negative conversion plug for RCAs to "Balanced" connector to plug into the ground of my Stratos Mono SEs when running w/o the Bryston 10B-LR Pro balanced crossovers. An active negative should never be plugged into a grounded negative. Call your front end manufacturer if there are any questions as many "balanced" systems are nothing more than a floating negative. Some companies such as Pass have pins to connect the ground to the negative on the outside only when using the RCA input.