Help with XLR ICs.

@nagel  please check your messages in here. Mike. 

Iconoclast UPOCC Gen 2. They are the high end division of Belden .They will send you the cables to try . If you do not like them they will pay for return shipping also. You have zero dollars out of your pocket to try. Fantastic cable and company to work with 

This is a serious question, not intended as a flame: can someone please explain to me, given the topology and function of balanced circuits, how any particular XLR cable composition can make a significant difference in sound, since whatever influence is cancelled back out by the recombination of the signals at the receiver end?

@jji666 The issue is that there’s a balance line standard (AES48) which most high end home audio equipment does not support. The result is that the shield of the cable is used for audio signal return much like it is with single-ended cables. So the construction of the cables, along with the capacitance resulting, makes a difference. Part of this has to do with the fact that the source impedances are higher than studio equipment as well as the input impedances of the equipment being driven.

There are high end home audio preamps that support AES48 and can drive impedances typically found where balanced lines are used in professional (broadcast, recording and so on) applications. If these preamps are used then most of the conversation of this thread is moot because the cables no longer make a difference (which is a large portion of the intention of balanced lines in the first place)!

Thanks. So does that translate to: if the equipment is truly balanced, then the XLR interconnects do not make a difference, but if the equipment isn't balanced but instead just has XLR but is really single-ended, then the XLR cables matter similarly to single-ended cables?