Balanced Interconnect Recommendations

Deep and wide soundstage, a cable that just gets out of the way and doesn’t draw attention to itself I’d suggest WyWires. I was a big fan of silver conductor for years, owned and dropped it and went back to copper after I went to WyWires.
Skimmed through the previous post and don’t recall the mention of balance circuit will drop the noise floor by 3db which I believe is because it does not tie the ground to the chassis so you’re picking up less noise; those that are techy I’m sure will chime in and explain better.

I run balance on several components and definitely feel micro detail has improved significantly as I can listen to lower levels and still tap my toes... I’m definitely listening to lower levels as my system has become more resolved or refined. You will not know until you try balance on your own system. Canare gets tossed out a lot lately here and for good reason as it’s great wire for the money; actually it’s stupid cheap and worth an evaluation as you might be glad you did as it will save you a ton of money. It can be purchased about anywhere but mentioned a lot at Blue Jeans Cable. Very flexible cable used primarily in studios and live venues.

https://www.bluejeanscable.com/store/shopbycable/L4E6S.htm

Skimmed through the previous post and don’t recall the mention of balance circuit will drop the noise floor by 3db which I believe is because it does not tie the ground to the chassis so you’re picking up less noise; those that are techy I’m sure will chime in and explain better.

Ideally the interconnected components will connect the shield of a balanced cable to chassis, which allows the shield to act as an extension of the shielding provided for the circuitry in each component by the component’s chassis.

However some and perhaps many designs connect the shield of a balanced cable to their internal circuit ground instead. (In a good design circuit ground and chassis will not be connected directly together; instead a resistor is often used to connect them together, although there are other approaches that can also work well).

Connection of the shield of a balanced cable to circuit ground within a component, rather than to chassis, can be conducive to ground loop-related noise. See the following excellent paper, as well as item 2 in my first post above:

https://www.ranecommercial.com/kb_article.php?article=2107

So this is one of many ways (I mentioned others in my initial post in the thread) in which the balanced vs. unbalanced question is dependent on the designs of the specific components that are being connected.  "Dependent" in ways that often have little if any predictability.

Regards,
-- Al

Instead of a theoretical debate about the pro’s & con’s of XLR vs RCA (AES48, pin 1 problems, were the f&*^*k to connect the shield, differential circuit design etc... bla bla bla), I would stick to the topic. Sometimes it looks like audiophiles around here are listening more with a calculator instead of their ears.

My tips for good XLR’s with a wide soundstage are Townshend F1, Black Cat Silver Lupo III, Nordost Norse 2 series. Maybe Tellurium Q Silver II or Audience 24SX.

If they're good to record with they're good to playback with.

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/GoldStu02--mogami-gold-studio-microphone-cable-2-foot-xlr-xl...