RCA versus XLR interconnects

My Recording Engineer friend & I always get into this argument and just let him win out of respect to my Elders 😁.

He insists that XLR is only for long runs and recording situations. I totally agree. But I love XLR’s because they are easy to solder (just remember pin 1 is GND) and you can join them together for longer runs in the home situation. I HATE RCA CONNECTOR SOLDERING !!! My entire rig is XLR input to output except for a pair of RCA’s for my TT, another pair that I built for my Headphone Amp’s inputs, and my Atmos Channels.

Also I refuse to mute or turn off equipment just to plug/unplug cables. RCA single ended gives you that nice ’BANG" & "BUZZ" that you don’t get from a properly Balanced XLR circuit.

As Paul McGowan once postulated in one of his earlier YT Video’s. Let’s just do away with RCA altogether just go balanced on everything. Circuit components are dirt cheap nowadays so why not ?

I’ve also chopped off many and old 3 conductor Monster & Audioquest Cable and converted them to XLR use with no issues.

It’s not about sound quality. It’s about convenance. When will "Audiophools" get it through your thick heads ? It’s taken me forever BTW.

Cheers,

Joe

Simple answer - Two meters or shorter, use unbalanced (RCA) cables.

The common mode rejection which makes balanced line and mic cables suitable for long distances is not an advantage here. If anything, it is a disadvantage, requiring an additional gain stage to ramp up -10dBm signal to +4, and to invert phase in order to filter cable-borne interference (that's the common mode part: the source component inverts phase, the amplifier inverts it again getting it back to normal, cancelling out interference and noise that could have entered along the length of the cable).

Even better: Unshielded cables. Lower capacitance = greater signal purity than cables with a coaxial shield but still very effectively shielded with twisted pair construction.

Like these: Stager Silver Solids Pure Silver High-End Audio Cables

@eylai777 my biggest take away on XLR vs Balanced is that when I run XLR from DAC/Preamp to AMP's and put my ear up to my tweeter roughly 1" away I here far less hiss/buzz (with XLR I here nothing). This hiss/buzz isn't audible with RCA from my listening position (10' away) but when/if setting up your system and you're wanting everything to be at least "in theory" optimal, I would use XLR all the time, not matter the length of run when possible (my example is with 1m cables, monoblock and dual mono amps and 92dB speakers)

 I've used a puritan 156 with connection cable and still didn't negate this and am presently testing unbalanced to balanced signal conversation options to see if. Also tried HumX at the mains wall AC (helps).

XLR is dead silent for me. I have listened for years and enjoyed my system with RCA, but now use all XLR.

One of the factors that has not been discussed above is the design of the actual connectors

• XLR conncetors convey the signal via low mass pins - this works much better for the delicate signals involved
• RCA connectors generally tend to have a relatively low mass signal pin but a much higher mass neutral barrel.
  • This can degrade performance, so an XLR cable may sound better
  • However, more recent RCA designs use low mass pins and as a result they can perform better than their XLR counterparts.
• also, an XLR cable, having effectively two signal wiires will suffer more distortion that is generated by the insulation on the wires
  • i.e. wires using an insulation with a lower value dielectric constant provide significantly better details, clarity and imaging

If you were to take two very good cables from a single manufacturer - I doubt if you would notice any difference

So, it is not as simple as XLR vs. RCA - it comes down to the cable design i.e.

• metals used in the wires
• type of insulation used
• type of connectors used
• the geometry of the cable

For more details on this take a look at

https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/what-i-have-found-makes-a-good-cable

Regards - Steve

For what it’s worth, MacIntosh technical advisor said he would use XLR over RCA all the time regardless of the length because of RF interference.