Switched from RCA to XLR Interconnects - WOW

audioman58

Amen.  It is the circuit that makes the difference.

 

Switching from RCA to XLR is only worththe extra time and money is if, you have a True differential balanced from input to output for each channel .

While a lot of audiophiles believe what Audioman58 has stated above, I would respectfully but emphatically disagree. The benefits that a balanced interface can potentially provide, that have been referred to in this thread (i.e., reduced sensitivity to cable differences, better performance when long cable runs are necessary, reduced susceptibility to ground loop issues, lower noise, higher overall system gain), have no relation to whether or not the components have fully balanced or fully differential internal signal paths. They just require that:

1) The output circuit of the component providing the signal provides a balanced pair of signals.

2)The input circuit of the component receiving the signals receives those signals differentially, meaning that it responds to the difference in voltage between the two signals in the balanced pair.

3)The two circuits are **well designed.** As Ralph (Atmasphere) has stated in past threads, in addition to those circuits providing good sonics, ideally that means that the output impedance of the component providing the signals is low, and that the ground connection is ignored by the interface circuits of both components. And I would add that it also means that the shield of the balanced interconnect cable, that is connected to pin 1 of the XLR connectors, should be connected within each component to chassis and not to the component’s circuit ground. See the following writeup for further discussion of that:

https://www.rane.com/note151.html

If all of these criteria are not met, a balanced interface may still work better than an unbalanced interface, or it may not, depending on the specific designs. But again, that has nothing to do with whether or not the components have fully balanced or fully differential internal signal paths.

Regards,
-- Al

@almarg,Thank You for providing the correct information.I too experienced huge improvements going from RCA to XLR wile connecting my preamp to amp. I tried it one more time last week and I am certainly staying XLR.

What really makes the difference is the skill of the designer. It is up to him to interpret the science and implement it. And we'll just listen and hopefully hear everything there is to hear.