SE,
I think that those with small ears were the hunters and those with the big protruding ears were the hunted.....
Then how do you explain Little Red Riding Hood?
se
The Polite Version...
Dan.
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
Dan.
It's tricky. The few JFET amps with fairly low voltage noise would be o.k. for MM. For MC you really do want lowest voltage noise, and with a few rare exceptions like MC cartridges with high inductance, you can more-or-less ignore current noise, which suggests use of bipolar input amps.
I would probably use a handful of additional parts and preface a bipolar amp with some discrete JFETs. It's not completely trivial as there are stability margin issues if the JFET stage has significant gain. If the JFETs have low-enough voltage noise they will not degrade things too badly used as source followers. And then there are all the things to attend to like power supply rejection, offset voltage stability, and new distortion mechanisms. IC designers do save us a lot of work!
I can say with some authority that a large percentage if headphones over $100 retail have a single ground return for both drivers. Any headphone with a detachable stereo cable will have a common ground. Most in ears also have a common ground from the place where they connect the two separate cables.
Getting a vendor to provide extra conductors is difficult, since it costs money (even a few cents can be a long drawn out negotiation). High end headphones are a different case but very small volumes, and that is why I said what I did. I have measured the DCR of quite a few different headphone cables.
But the real question was whether more than 40 dB of separation is necessary. At some point your head has too much crosstalk. . .
Yes, the Beats Studio is compromised but that had no impact on sales. Its really a fashion statement anyway.
Wouldn't any headphone using a common stereo plug have the two ground wires connected always at the plug? Even my inexpensive Sony headphones have two separate wires running up to the ear pieces but there is again that common connection at the plug. I have never seen a headphone with two connectors, but I am not into high end headphones. Do the expensive electrostatic headphones or others use two connectors to keep the two channels apart?
all my headphones are balanced, even my custom in ears have a balanced cable on them at the moment, all but one of my headphone amps is balanced as well, but its not common. have you tried using a fullsize subwoofer with your AKG? sounds really great not so much to other people without the headphones though
not so much to other people without the headphones though 
Pavel!!!!!
A used good condition AP System 2 like I use is available for under $8,000.
The software you are using seems to be able to be used with an external sound card to almost match the AP, but it does make up for that by doing a few other things except of course digital audio. But the prices start at $25.00!
Frrgg...
I shall be naughty, and ask this question: AB test - Blowtorch on A, volume set, "best" opamp on B, absolutely naked, hard wired gain to match the BT, optimum power supplies and surroundings to get best performance, no ancillary circuitry at all -- is there a difference, which will "win"?
Frank
Frank
nope, its single ended, but really unless you already have a balanced source and somewhat picky headphones a good SE amp wired to separate grounds does very well. with many/most headphones you wont see a difference and it can be worse due to the lower apparent load impedance, but if you have balanced DAC, it just seems best to me to keep it balanced all the way. some headphones just seem to have subjectively more extended/controlled bass with balanced drive and some really do use the extra swing.
you can make a single ended amp, careful grounding, with dedicated returns for L/R and a 4 wire 4 pin cable and get most of the advantage, without the 2H cancellation or better CMRR
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all my headphones are balanced, even my custom in ears have a balanced cable on them at the moment, all but one of my headphone amps is balanced as well, but its not common. have you tried using a fullsize subwoofer with your AKG? sounds really great
Heh the main reason for the AKGs is apartment constraints, and as well a desire not to have my keyboard playing and composing be heard by anyone except me. I have a subwoofer which functions primarily as a table...
Yes, an extension cable with a mating XLR was supplied, the other end terminated in little gold crimped pins. I usually use my ancient NAD 3020, the power amp section only, as all of the switches, and the potentiometer, are hopelessly dirty. I set the level from the keyboard itself.
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