XLR or RCA cables

Jensen makes great stuff.

To get all advantages of Ayre, you should use balanced preamp. In your case balanced or unbalanced doesn't matter.

The Jensen will give you the full benefit of balanced and that is why it is so wonderful. Many balanced preamps have the same technology right inside the preamp that the Jensen offers in this passive box.

I am currently running 2 meter RCA interconnects with adapters at the amp but was wondering if running XLR cables with an adapter at the preamp would offer any improvement.

In principle, using an XLR cable with an adapter at the preamp is the better of the two approaches, in part because it would provide somewhat better rejection of hum and noise. It corresponds electrically to the configuration shown in Figure 2.1 of this Jensen paper.

In principle, using a Jensen transformer would be a much better approach, as suggested above and as described in the paper.

As a practical matter, and assuming that you do not presently have perceivable problems with hum or noise, whether or not either of those alternatives would provide an improvement in your particular setup is anyone's guess IMO.

Regards,
-- Al

On simlar length runs with same type of cable, XLR just sounds more dynamic and more refined than RCA. Yes, I have taken into consideration that a XLR connection will sound louder and had adjusted volume control to compensate.

This I have tried on equipment with dual RCA / XLR inputs and outputs (Denon AVP-A1HD sound processor, Bel Canto DAC3.5VB MKII, Bel Canto REF1000MKII).

This is the reason why Ayre amplification has only XLR connections. When you had tried both, you would only want to use XLR.

(Audio)