First Foray into XLR

+1 re Mogami, specifically Mogami Gold Studio, which is the de facto cable of choice in many professional applications. And like a number of others here I’ve had fine results with it in various home applications at various lengths. And the price is certainly reasonable.

However, while I suspect that using XLR rather than RCA interconnections will make a difference, I suspect that the major contributor to the difference will not be the cable itself, but rather differences between the configurations of the XLR and RCA interface circuits in the two components. And the only way to know which one will sound better is to try them both.

Also, assuming you are using the stereo version of the amp I think it would be a good idea to contact Klaus at Odyssey and ask him what is meant by the word "bridged" in the website’s reference to the XLR input of the amp. Usually that term refers to a technique for configuring a stereo amp such that it can be used as a more powerful mono amp, which processes an input for just one channel. Evidently that is not what is meant here, but it would be good to know just what is meant, or if it is simply a mistake in the description.

Good luck. Regards,
--Al

Good point on the ‘bridged’ term. I suspect it’s supposed to read ‘balanced’, but that’s a guess. It was recommended to me by someone who doesn’t sell Odyssey (obviously), but is familiar, that i use the balanced connections as it’s a ‘true’ balanced design. FWIW

Use Mogami, Canare, and Belden cables in my small studio and all are quality XLRs. Prefer Belden for audiophile interconnects as it sounds brighter and more transparent. Mogami will suffice as well.
Again, if you visit Blue Jeans Cable you can read about the relative merits of various XLR types. Canare, for example, has more effective noise shielding than other cables -- but at a frequency cost. Gearslutz has threads devoted to cable topics and there you can find the pro studio perspective.
Have compared XLR to RCA connections in my systems and XLR wins handily -- you can distinguish the difference easily if the surrounding equipment (and especially the speakers) are high enough quality.

@english210 ………………..


Your Odyssey Stratos amp is NOT a balanced amp.  Klaus put the balanced connectors on the amp because there was a demand for it.  If you look inside the amp, you will see they are connected to the RCA inputs.  You are wasting your money going to XLR cables with that amp.  I know because I owned one for 7 years and tried it.  Single ended sounded better!

Thanks for providing that info, Stereo5. So I would think that in this case the word "bridged" in the amp’s description refers to internal jumpers (i.e., connections) between the RCA and XLR connectors, as I’ve occasionally seen the term "bridged" being used to mean "jumpered."

Therefore the signal pin on the RCA connector is presumably jumpered to one of the two signal pins on the XLR connector, most likely pin 2, and the ground shell of the RCA connector is presumably jumpered to the ground pin (pin 1) of the XLR connector. But a significant concern I would have is that since the amp apparently doesn’t provide a switch to select between the XLR and RCA inputs, the other signal pin on the XLR connector, pin 3, might also be connected to the ground pin, or to another ground point within the amp.

If that is the case, connecting the amp to the A/V Processor via XLR cables would short the signal provided on pin 3 by the A/V P to ground. While some components can tolerate that (and there are a few designs that would require it), some cannot (see this thread for example), and in some cases damage to the component providing the signal could conceivably even result, eventually if not sooner.

That issue would not arise, of course, if the design leaves pin 3 unconnected. But in that case it would seem unlikely that going to XLR cables would provide any benefit, as Stereo5 indicated. Unless, that is, the sonics of the A/V P’s XLR outputs are superior to those of its RCA outputs, which I suspect is unlikely in this particular case.

In any event, it sounds like an inquiry to Klaus would be in order before connecting these components via XLR, to clarify how pin 3 is handled.

Regards,
-- Al