Balanced Interconnect Recommendations

@almarg   So your contention is that the benefit of common-mode rejection inherent to an XLR connection may provide an advantage over single-ended connections in some cases?  I'm not sure common-mode rejection is the most important factor to be weighing when selecting cables but I can't disagree with you 100% either (only 99.9% ;-)).  For instance if you're talking about a short length and a low-gain signal then a single-ended circuit may very well outperform balanced regardless of common-mode rejection.  This discussion feels more theoretical than practical and it sounds like we both agree that the vast majority of the time the user is much better off in terms of both cost and performance to only go with XLR when engaged with  fully balanced circuit.  And agreed, if you don't mind spending the money and investing the time, sure it never hurts to try both ways.  I just think there are higher odds pursuits to improve audio quality.

So your contention is that the benefit of common-mode rejection inherent to an XLR connection may provide an advantage over single-ended connections in some cases?

No, that is not what I was saying.

By "common mode rejection" I assume you are referring to rejection of common mode noise, i.e., noise that is picked up equally in the two signal conductors of a balanced cable, which can therefore be rejected or at least attenuated by a balanced receiver circuit.

But note that none of the seven factors I referred to have anything to do with that, except perhaps to some extent in the case of number 6.

Regards,
-- Al

@almarg   The reason that balanced lines are going to be more resistant to noise is due to common-mode rejection so I assumed (incorrectly) that's what was underlying your points.  And yes, you referred to common mode rejection exactly in the way I meant as well.

Perhaps someone(s) on this forum who is using unbalanced circuits could do a comparison with RCA vs XLR IC to see if it makes a sound quality improvement in their system. My main system is fully balanced from input to output and I use XLR's only due to that topology.  My second system uses an integrated amp...otherwise I'd volunteer!

Real life experiences ...
I have the REGA OSIRIS integrated amp and the REGA ISIS VALVE cdp/ dac.

(1) REGA itself recommends balanced XLR interconnects between them . I stress-tested
their manual Recommendations with shoot-outs between high-end RCAs versus XLRs ....in my shootouts, REGA was right .

(2) In direct cable bake-offs in MY system (emphasis added ...) against numerous high-end brands, NORDOST FREY XLRs were best of breed at their price points.

(3) Completing the NORDOST cables array with NORDOST FREY shotgunned speaker cables and matched jumpers was a further audio performance improvement.

I would like an eventual further move up to NORDOST VALHALLAs , but budgets are always a limiting factor.

highly recommended .

@akg_ca I too have the Isis and was wondering if you could describe the sonic differences you heard between using rca’s and xlr’s from the Isis into the Osiris. Thanks so much