I am planning to use a mkV for my crossover and have downloaded the manual. The manual is specific about not shorting the neg out to ground like many diff out systems suggest when driving a SE input. So my question is should I add a Diff->SE converter on the output of the mkV or just use the pos/gnd as the input. The mkV uses the Sabre 2 ESS DAC's which I thought had more distortion if you only used one leg of the output. Conversely, at these performance levels, building a diff->SE converter may cause just as much degradation. Suggestions?
If a device uses a proper balanced output driver, IMO by shorting OUT- to ground the negative output driver would be shorted through the output serial resistor, nothing desirable.
Did not plan to short the neg output. In fact the motu manual I downloaded specifically said not to. Some devices are designed to short the neg to gnd for single ended operation, the motu is no. So my choices are build a diff-single ended converter or to just use the pos/gnd and leave the neg out floating. Curious which members think is the better option. Does the ESS chip have significantly better performance differentially than when tapping just one leg? I thought some DAC's had some harmonic distortion cancelled by using both legs. Obviously building 8 diff->se channels is much more effort than building some TRS->RCA cables with the neg out from the ring left open.