Balanced vs. Single Ended Interconnects

I was able to borrow a pair of monoprice premium XLR cables from a friend and hooked them up yesterday.  My initial response was positive, but after a little longer listening I felt like some of the smoothness was missing.  I currently have the Audioquest Sydney RCA cables back in the system for another round of comparision.

@chrken - While it is possible that at the lengths of cables that are generally used in home audio the difference between balanced and unbalanced could be negligible, a quality balanced cable connecting two balanced components should always be superior (all other things being equal).

I tried XLR mogami vs Purist Proteus RCA (5m) from an unbalanced crossover or preamp to a fully differential amp. The Purist sounded like Purist and the XLRs sounded more distorted, which was the least surprising outcome. 

I have had Pathos Inpol 2 (bigger brother of your amp) and also had Pathos Classic 3 on loan from a friend, for a comparation.

It is a lovely sounding little amp and it is sensitive to cable changes. So, no matter what anybody might tell you, my first hand expereince with your amp is that it will sound 'better' with 'better' cables, rca or xlr, meaning, the xlr will not sound better, just because its balanced cable.

I am looking forward to hear gear that is made with that AES standard that Atmasphere (have not heard his stuff) mentiones when he writes about balanced connection. 

P.S. I would look for some sh older upper class AQ cables (audiotruth), before later models that were often counterfited... 

ohlala - If you're connecting to an unbalanced component then balanced cable provides no benefit.  If it's a cable designed for an unbalanced connection that just has an XLR connector then I'd anticipate that it would perform nearly identically to a standard unbalanced cable.  If it's a cable designed for a balanced connection with an RCA connector, then I'd anticipate that it might perform poorly since it's being used in the wrong application

It is sort of the other way around.
Using an XLR into an RCA adapter, with say the starquad cable one should see:

• slightly better immunity to magnetically induced signal from the starquad cancelation (Pretty subtle I would think)
  • and all the CMRR advantage is lost.
• a higher amount of capacitance (maybe double?)
• probably a bit more immunity to ground loop as there is a wire and a shield (in parallel) to couple the ground between the chassis. (Maybe half?)

The main reason I would use an XLR cable in that scenario is that one could use XLR, or they could decide to use the RCA with the adapters.

Basically when the 3 wires of the XLR are made into a 2 wire system, it is equivalent to the 2 wire cable. But one cannot decombine a 2 wire cable back into a 3 wire cable.

As you know most pro audio is balanced. If you had significant runs and problems with ground loops and hum, then the XLR is your friend.
If the lengths are short, and there is not hum, then one may not hear any difference… because there probably is not any significant difference.