In my opinion, a balanced system is always better than and unbalanced system.  When i say “a balanced system”, i means that “moderate quality headunits” + “moderate quality speakers”.  For unbalanced system, i means that ‘lousy headunits’ + ‘ lousy amplifier’ + ‘good quality 2 way component speakers’.

Assume that the headunit of the balanced system is “Pioneer DEH-1050E (less than RM300)”, rear speaker is JBL 3 way speaker (~RM250), front speaker is unknown.  The rear and front speaker is connected directly to the headunit.  Money spent = less than RM550.

Assume that the headunit of a unbalanced system is stock headunit + “cheap amp (RM300)” + front speaker -”soundstream XSC.6 (~RM500)” + stock rear speaker.  Money spent = “around RM800″.  The front speaker is connected through the amp and the rear speaker is connected directly to the headunit.  The Left channel and Right channel of the amp is connected to front left channel of headunit (This stupid connection is done by inexperienced technician to cheat inexperienced user, because of this connection, there is no stereo effect).

For those two systems above, which system do you think will sound better, definitely is the balanced system eventhrough less money is spent.

The soundstream component speaker installed on the unbalanced system describe above is such a waste, the speaker cant show its full potential and good source quality due to poor quality source (headunit with low SNR) and poor quality amp (output with high THD).

The scenario of the unbalanced system is like connecting a sennheiser HD650( audiophile headphone) to a mp3 player.  A good pair of headphones will require a high quality headphones amplifier and good source to sounds good.

So, be wise when selecting the components, dont blame that the speakers is not good when you are pairing the good speakers with poor quality headunit and amp, people will laugh at you.

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