All things being equal (hypothetical) which do you prefer, XLR or RCA?


Hello All,

Just curious here. All things being equal would you go balanced or unbalanced if you have the option for both? I only ask because I've never really compared-though I have gone both routes at different times. I have gone the balanced route now (power amp to pre, and DAC to pre), but wonder which route you all would choose...Just curious and having some fun...
kingbr
Hypotheticals are not all that helpful in setting up systems; the particular cable XLR or RCA, which sounds best is the one I use. Never presume an XLR from a manufacturer will always outperform an RCA from a different manufacturer. Theoretically it should, but often it does not. 


Dual differential XLR is less prone to interference but can be a bit sluggish compared to the best single ended implementations. Single ended is preferred on purist systems based on SET amps from Kondo, Shindo, Audionote or Wavac. I guess the easiest way to look at it: short runs in low interference environments RCA, otherwise XLR