2. cables
  3. 1423247473

Advantage of Balanced over RCA for phono cables


Anticipating the arrival of an Aesthetix Io phono pre and wonder if there's solid advantage to cabling the front end with balanced cables.

The run from TTable to phono pre, and phono pre to preamp will not be longer than 1 meter. The associated gear is Aurum Acoustics solid state CD/preamp and Aurum hybrid amp (proprietary SS amp for woofer, 300B and 6SN7 tubes for mid and high frequencies).

I don't really understand the need for balanced cables for other than signal coherence and fidelity over long runs. Just my ignorance.

Hope you can help me understand the potential virtues and pitfalls.

Best, and Thanks Ahead,

David
128x128cdk84
arh
366 posts
 
The signal in the phono cable is very low. Any rfi or hum can easily interfere with the signal. Balanced cables tend to cancel out this type of interference.
Alan
kurt_tank
1,189 posts
 
The signal from a phono cartridge is basically a balanced signal, so going with an all balanced system makes sense. Ralph Karsten, with Atma-Sphere, can probably explain it better than I can. (Ralph designs his preamps primarily to use balanced connections, including the phono inputs and outputs.). I suggest you contact him. He is very knowledgable and very helpful. (A true gentleman, IMHO. And this coming from a guy who doesn't even own any of his gear, although I certainly wouldn't rule it out in the future - especially his MP-1 preamp.)

FYI: I use balanced connections from my tonearm cables all the way through to my amplifiers. I am very happy with my system and have no plans to ever go back to single ended connections.
lak's avatar
Ag insider logo xs@2x
lak
4,624 posts
 
This is not the answer you are looking for because it's vague however in my opinion you have to try it for yourself, in your own system, to really know what you prefer. That's not an inexpensive thing to do unless you have some friends or a dealer that can loan you some balanced cables.
More to discover