[Wizard454]

Hello all,
Hope some of you can shed some light on this for me. I have recently acquired a Bryston BP26 and have it running running with single ended I.C's into a pair of Odyssey Audio Mono blocks. The combination is very musical and am enjoying it immensely. I would like to try the BP26 as well as my SF Line2 tube pre-amp in balanced mode with these amps they are "not" true balanced were both the pre's are. My Odyssey owners manual tells me the XLR inputs are "jumped" to the RCA's with Pin 1 being ground, Pin 2 being Hot & , no mention of Pin 3. Both the BP26 & SF manuals state Pin 1 ground, Pin 2 positive, Pin 3 negative.
Questions:
1) Can I safely Balanced cables with this setup?
2) If so what wiring configuration should I use at the amp end XLR connector?
3) is there ANY advantage at all in this case in going to Balanced cables? The Cable run will never exceed 8 feet but there is a good bit of other equipment, power cords, I.C.'s etc in this area as well.

Thank you very much in advance for any suggestions you may have.

[Sonny]

Hello all,
Hope some of you can shed some light on this for me. I have recently acquired a Bryston BP26 and have it running running with single ended I.C's into a pair of Odyssey Audio Mono blocks. The combination is very musical and am enjoying it immensely. I would like to try the BP26 as well as my SF Line2 tube pre-amp in balanced mode with these amps they are "not" true balanced were both the pre's are. My Odyssey owners manual tells me the XLR inputs are "jumped" to the RCA's with Pin 1 being ground, Pin 2 being Hot & , no mention of Pin 3. Both the BP26 & SF manuals state Pin 1 ground, Pin 2 positive, Pin 3 negative.
Questions:
1) Can I safely Balanced cables with this setup?
2) If so what wiring configuration should I use at the amp end XLR connector?
3) is there ANY advantage at all in this case in going to Balanced cables? The Cable run will never exceed 8 feet but there is a good bit of other equipment, power cords, I.C.'s etc in this area as well.

Thank you very much in advance for any suggestions you may have.

Wizard, yes it is safe to run xlr into the extremes, however, it still is single ended and I would doubt if you would get noticeable differences from the single ended...I guess you would gain the balance of the preamp out, which is something...

[mclsound]

hi Fred,you ask some super questions,i myself have acquired a Anthem AVM-30 and also would like to go balanced!!! i was asking Klaus about some Gromebergs,any thoughts on premium or reg?  thanks John

[jreinhart]

I've called the people at Bryston about this earlier as I was going to use their 10B-LP which are balanced.  I've also talked with Klaus who stated and I confirmed later looking inside the amp that the cold pin (3) floated (no connections).  The BP26 Bryston will work with the Mono Extremes but the cold pin must float, i.e. there must be nothing attached.  DO NOT CONNECT THE GROUND TO PIN 3! 

[Wizard454]

hi Fred,you ask some super questions,i myself have acquired a Anthem AVM-30 and also would like to go balanced!!! i was asking Klaus about some Gromebergs,any thoughts on premium or reg?  thanks John

Hi John,
I think you'll be very happy with the AVM I have heard it with the Anthem A5 amp and it sounded real good. It should be even better with the mono's. As for the cables I can't comment I have not started playing in that mine field yet.
Regards,
Fred 

[Wizard454]

I've called the people at Bryston about this earlier as I was going to use their 10B-LP which are balanced.  I've also talked with Klaus who stated and I confirmed later looking inside the amp that the cold pin (3) floated (no connections).  The BP26 Bryston will work with the Mono Extremes but the cold pin must float, i.e. there must be nothing attached.  DO NOT CONNECT THE GROUND TO PIN 3! 

jreinhart,
Thank you very much for your response it is extremely helpful.
Greatly appreciated!

[mclsound]

it is a bit of a field "A"