One has nothing to do with the other, balanced doesn't make any difference if you're tracking or mixing. What balanced does is give you better RF rejection, allows you to run longer lines, and in the case of the Speck ASC, like the Great River MP-2MH &MP-2NV, gives you the choice of a balanced or unbalanced output.

The balancing transformer in each of these units (as in all 3) I find fattens up the tone a bit, with the convenience of having a second output so I don't have to deal with the 'buffers' and/or latency when tracking into a DAW. I can take the unbalanced output straight into whatever little desk I'm using for Cue Mixes, and not have to struggle.

Hi. As a proud owner of a brand-new ASC (actually, a pair :) :) :) ), I'd like to comment, although I haven't spent much time with it yet.

Both models have both TRS and XLR balanced outputs, and the TRS output can also be used with a standard TS cable for unbalanced operation. The difference is that the more expensive model has a transformer on the XLR output only. (The TRS output for both models is active-balanced, and on the cheaper model, the XLR output is also active-balanced).

One thing to note is that if the TRS output is connected on the transformer-balanced model, the transformer on the XLR output is automatically disconnected. You don't get any sound from the XLR ouput at all, so you can't use both outputs at once on this model. (I don't know about the cheaper one).

The main difference, then, is the sound of the transformer-balanced XLR output. I don't really know the words that you engineers use to describe this, but it sounds a bit bigger, a little bit richer, and at the same time more blended. It's not a huge difference, but to me, it's definitely worth the difference in price.

If you get a chance to try it and find that the active-balanced sound is what you prefer, save a bit and get the cheaper one. If you get the more expensive one, you can choose which output you want to use, if you find that you prefer one sound or another on different occasions.

I'm using this with balanced connections, so all I can say about unbalanced operation is what the manual (and the back of the ASC) says, that you can use the 1/4" inputs and outputs with a standard TS plug for unbalanced operation. I don't know enough to know if this will get you into any trouble with certain equipment (the ASC manual also advises consulting the manuals of the other equipment), but in any case, operation for the TRS inputs and outputs is the same on both models.

Hope this helps.

(I'm just a novice here, but these forums are so great, and I'm learning so much for free, that I feel obliged to try to help if I can, in my limited way).

(Fletcher, thanks for a great job!!!)

Connectabilty (is that a word?)was a high priority during the ASC design.

The ASC has both balanced XLR and balanced TRS for the input and output. On the standard model (sans-trans), all I/O's are active-balanced. On the transformer model, the transformer-balanced output shows up at the XLR "and" active-balanced at the TRS.

The TRS jacks will accept an unbalanced TS plug.

Regards,

Vince Poulos
Speck Electronics