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ralphgonz
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Mar 15, 2018
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At the risk of repeating what someone may have already pointed out... balanced audio was developed to reduce noise in cables carrying very low level signals, such as those produced by ribbon microphones: less than 0.001 volts even with the benefit of a transformer. Higher output microphones will have a signal level below 0.01 volts. Microphone cables are often dozens or even hundreds of feet long. Here a balanced signal is critical to keeping noise and hum under control.
Compare this to interconnects less than 10 feet long carrying line level or headphone signals: typically 0.3 to 2 volts. Relative to the signal level, cable-induced noise levels in this use case are intrinsically several orders of magnitude lower than you will find in the microphone use case and are generally lower than the noise in the source material or noise produced by the source amplifier.
That is why unbalanced cables are normally sufficient for consumer audio interconnects and headphones.
Mar 15, 2018
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