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Switched from RCA to XLR Interconnects - WOW

I just received a set of Pangea True Balanced Premier SE XLR interconnects from Audio Advisor and connected them between my phono preamp to my amp.
I really didn't expect to hear any major difference, but man was I wrong.  The sound quality is night and day improved over my previous cables (Clear Day Cables RCA cables).  The improvement in bass response is amazing, and the soundstage got about 2 feet wider and deeper.  Mids and highs are also more clearly defined, and the backgrounds are about as black as I have ever heard.   What also surprised me is how much hotter the signal is into the amp.  I had to turn the volume down quite a bit to equal levels I usually listed to with the previous cables.
FYI, the preamp is a Parasound JC3+ and the amp is a Lyngdorf TDAI-3400.  
I'm really impressed.  I had always wanted to try using balanced cables but this is the first amp I have owned that had balanced inputs.  
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shadorne's avatar
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shadorne
7,477 posts
 
@ieales

Exactly. If you have consumer grade audio then balanced may not do much for you unless you have an EM/RF noise (reduced by 40 dB in extreme cases) problem. If you have pro grade audio with much higher line signal levels then you will get the full benefit of around 12 dB lower noise floor with XLR.

Are there any audiophiles who don’t care about an intrinsically 12 dB lower noise floor? Are there any audiophiles who don’t care about 40 dB reduction in EM/RF noise?

Check out this video

https://youtu.be/9ckp5CYBBjE


Of course if all you have is cheap RCA and consumer grade electronics then there is little you can do....

ieales's avatar
ieales
1,201 posts
 
Balanced reduces induced noise. If the output is noisy, balanced will not reduced the noise. Balanced may offer some relief in noisy environments provided the rest of the electronics are sufficiently well designed. I fixed lots of 'pro audio' gear that was not.

The video is irrelevant. One can use star quad in unbalanced connections and achieve similar results. Connect the screen at one end only.

Many would do well to arrange the rats nest behind their gear to achieve several db better noise figures.
atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
11,793 posts
 
The rest of my system has a mix of RCA and XLR. I cannot say the XLR have any superior sound advantage over the RCA within this Kimber model.

If the equipment does not support the balanced standard, then variable results will be the case.

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 . Which is easy to tell ,you will see 4 transformers .

We patented a method where this is not the case- using a direct-coupled output. This output circuit (modified Circlotron) is on the output of our tube preamps.
Lamm certainly does use XLRs at least they used to on their amps. My understanding is that the circuits were not truly balanced. Nonetheless, they probably met the criteria mentioned in this thread.
They don't. Pin 3 is not connected, so if a true balanced source is connected to this input, a buzz will result since pin 2 will be floating with an incomplete circuit.
If you have consumer grade audio then balanced may not do much for you unless you have an EM/RF noise (reduced by 40 dB in extreme cases) problem.
Our MP-1 is meant for home use but supports AES48. So there is some 'consumer grade' equipment that flies in the face of this.
If you have even noticed a difference between audio cables, you might want to read this. Its quick and no math:
http://www.atma-sphere.com/Resources/balanced.php

shadorne's avatar
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shadorne
7,477 posts
 
Well that settles it then. XLR is just an expensive bulky waste of money. Pro studios, musicians, sound engineers and microphone manufacturers are simply too ignorant to know better.

Cheap RCA is just as good.


ieales's avatar
ieales
1,201 posts
 
@shadorne I designed and installed professional recording studio equipment. My company also did studio wiring installations. We offered a service to 'quiet' installations where implementation was less than stellar. We never failed to dramatically quieten. 

Most gear is unbalanced internally. To balance an output a transformer or an additional inverting amplifier must be added. In the case of the amplifier, it has its own self-noise and any induced noise not also in the +phase will be amplified at the receiving end.

A home HiFi is less than trivial relative to a multi-studio installation. In too many instances an XLR is added simply for the 'pro' cachet. It has as much sonic benefit as Titanium handles.
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