Emotiva ERC-3 or Music Hall C-DAC15.3 / connections?

I have the ERC-3. Great player. IMO it would take multiples of the MSRP ($500) to best it. That said, I can also speak to the downside of the unit. I’ve also talked to Lonnie Vaughn a few times and got his take on my observation(s). First, if you haven’t seen the video of him explaining the player, you ought to:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AASMX6zpOog

To your specific point about RCA and XLR, XLR is preferable. What is not known, however, is whether or not the unit is *truly* balanced through and through. It is thought not to be. No bigigy there, just keep it in mind. The RCA also sounds great, but as I might have expected, has a little bit less gain than the XLR out. I’m guessing some where between 3 and 6 db less.

On the negative side of the player, it (motor spinning disk) is *very* noisy when compared to other players. Guessing a 2 db increase and it is audible within a foot or so of the unit. There is much negativity by some in other forums about that. However, from the listening position which would likely be many more feet away, it is not audible (to my ears).

On the positive side, regarding the noisy motor, the rationale by Emotiva is the unit uses a significantly better class laser than most players and therefor can and opted to spin the disk about 1200 RPMs, many times (3 or 4) faster than most players. As a result, the error correction in the ERC-3 is purported to be very good (and I can vouch that it is). So, if you have scratched or less than optimal disks, this player should be able to read them with no problem.

Great player and a great value when all things are considered.

Edit: I have no experience with the Music Hall C-DAC15.3. At face value though, from what I can glean from http://musichallaudio.com/c-dac15-3/ and the fact it may be a bit *more* expensive, I would go with the Emotiva :)

gdhal, are you saying that Emotiva is not sure whether the ERC-3 is fully balanced?  That's what it appears you are saying.

I bought one of their early dacs, the XDA-1, and Emotiva was sure that it had lossless volume and could do 192 hz over USB.  They were wrong on both counts, and had to recant, after many customers complained.

The ERC-2 was noisy too, and to hear that they haven't made any headway in that regard is disappointing.  The cd player has to do several things well, including the DAC process, and if the manufacturer can't even decide if the cd player that they designed is fully balanced, well that's a red flag, the price be damned.

I had the ERC-1 as well as the XDA-1, and it had issues too. 

gdhal, are you saying that Emotiva is not sure whether the ERC-3 is fully balanced? That's what it appears you are saying.

No. I meant thought not to be balanced by myself, based on some readings on this forum, the Emotiva forum, and the fact their website is a little ambiguous in this regard. I have not posed the question to Emotiva. 

Have you come across any literature from Emotiva or forum posts indicating it is truly/fully balanced?

@213runnin

Incidentally, the ambiguity I was speaking of was also cited by @almarg in this thread https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/balanced-but-not-fully-balanced

Further, note the Emotiva website, which indicates a S/N for balanced out is 110db, is correct. However, prior to 11/30/15 the spec listed was lower than the 104db S/N output for unbalanced. After calling this to Lonnie's attention, he had their website corrected. As proof of that, if you PM me your persoanl email address, I'd be happy to forward his correspondence.