BALANCED VS UNBALANCED

It's not just cable types, but you can safely ignore it. Avoid any cheap equipment that claims to be "balanced" and don't have anything to do with balanced.

Stick with single-ended connections - RCA plugs.

Regards,

Metralla is correct. RCA (single eneded) cables are fine for relatively short runs. In order to take full advantage of "balanced" technology, your preamp and amp must be "differentialy balanced". Many amps and preamps out there have XLR inputs or outputs, but aren't differentialy balanced. Another advantage of XLR cables is if you have very heavy cables. XLRs lock tightley in place. Heavy RCAs can bend the center pin over time.

Bob----great reference to share with us---thank you!

Yoby is correct. Differentially-balanced designs (Ayre, Krell, Classe' Audio, BAT, etc) are the correct and optimal method of deploying 'balanced' signal technology. Inexpensive equipment with XLR inputs and/or outputs (often called 'balanced') frequently uses cheap op-amps to convert their single-ended signal to 'balanced' and these op-amps normally hurt sound quality. For this reason, it may indeed be best to avoid using the XLR inputs and outputs of inexpensive equipment, instead using the single-ended RCA connections.

However, some of the principle advantages of using 'balanced' (XLR) interconnects are still there even in non-differentially-balanced systems. Namely, the reduction in noise vs RCA-type interconnects, especially in long runs. Also, XLR interconnects are less vunerable to hum.

I find it puzzling that Metralla is so negative toward 'balanced' equipment, yet he has a BALANCED AUDIO TECHNOLOGY PREAMP that is fully differentially-balanced.

Dlcockrum writes:

I find it puzzling that Metralla is so negative toward 'balanced' equipment, yet he has a BALANCED AUDIO TECHNOLOGY PREAMP that is fully differentially-balanced.

I'm not negative towards balanced equipment at all. My modified SACD player has a custom fully-balanced output stage built by Ric Schultz feeding the BAT, which as you pointed out, is also balanced.

I just felt, with the equipment the original poster listed and the price range he was aiming at, that he may be seduced by marketing speak regarding balanced cables and equipment at the lower end of the price range. You covered the pitfalls yourself.

Regards,

Metralla,

Got it. I'm with you. I am also a big fan of fully diffentially-balanced equipment (Ayre, Krell) and XLR cables and I just thought that if someone misunderstood your post, they might avoid going the balanced route entirely.

It's all good. Thanks for the clarification.

lots of info,,thankyou

Hey, thank you for turning off the Caps! 8^)

you r welcome sir

The output buffer stage and input buffer stage of the "cheap" equipment are unity gain circuits, one of which happens to be wired up for signal inversion. Unity gain circuits are easily implemented with near-zero distortio/noise.