converting Rega to balanced output?

I haven't, but I'm curious as to how you are enjoying your P7. I am considering buying one of them myself.

LOL... "I meant Thanks"....

You need to rewire the Rega from the collar to the phono-pre. The ground wire should be split in R en L channel and connected with the nr.1 on the XLR connectors. The
red and the white wire to the nr.2 and blue and green to the nr.3 of the both (L-R) XLR connectors.

Thanks Nandric!
Jmc, I have had it about a year now. I went from P-1 to p3-24 to p-5 then to P-7 (yes my dealer has been very generous!) I think it is a great TT, set it and forget it kind of thing, you just have to get past staring at those disc as they spin around LOL...

I find balanced phono a real plus. As I read these pages, people have hum/noise problems....I have a balanced system that is absolutely DEAD quiet...even with the volume control turned up. Doesn't get better.

That's what I'm looking for No_money.....a generous dealer. ;-)

Wait until you progress to the P9....

That's in the plans Miner!

I have done this operation a number of times.

The Rega arm is set up with RCA cables coming right out of its base. But if you take it apart, what you find is that there is a tiny dime-sized round circuit board on the other side of that rubber plug that is in the base of the arm.

This allows you to set up balanced operation. Follow the regular color codes: black shield for *both* channels and pin 1 on the XLRs, red pin 2 of the right channel XLR, green pin 3 of the right channel XLR and so on.

The problem you will run into is that there is not a lot of room. Usually what I have had to do is use a drill to go through the rubber plug to make more room for the cable I am using.

BTW, for that I usually use Mogami Neglex console cable. It is only 1/8" in diameter, is OFC and has a twisted pair inside with a shield. What you will find when you go to balanced is that the interconnect cable plays a minuscule role in the overall sound compared to single-ended so using a cable like this is absolutely no worries for the audiophile nervosa challenged.

Good luck- don't rush it :)

'I have done this operation a number of times' (Atmasphere). Well the best upgrade for the Rega is the rewiring of the mentioned part (from the collar to the pre). I have never seen such a worthless cable before.
This is, I assume, the reason why Atmasphere rewired this arm also for his friends(?). On ebay.uk you can get all the needed parts, even the special made Din 5 connector
so you can use any phonocable you like. If you are scilful you can rewire the arm all the way from the cart 'pins' to the phono-pre. The construction of Rega is such that you
have easy access to the armwand. The balanced connectors have only sense if you have a really balanced phono-pre. You should check the thread(s) about this issue.

Regards,

Addition, If one intend to solder the Din 5 connector in
the Rega collar one should or may use the cart clips for
the purpose. First solder the clips on the inside wire
and then 'slide in' the clips on the Din connctors and solder
them thereafter. The small connectors with ditto holes are
not easy to solder.

Regards,

Elizabeth, best I can make out from your post, that scenario will hum. The problem is that the stock arm cable uses the minus output of the cartridge as a shield, so if that is used on pin 3 of the XLR you will have a substantial hum.

Its unfortunate that the arm does not have a 5-pin connector or else this would be really easy. But it does have the little circuit board, so it is possible.a

Sweet! Thanks for the tip.

What about something like this?

http://www.cardas.com/content.php?area=products&content_id=14&pagestring=&product_id=52