Long run XLR cables

OP: 

Based on the owners manual, page 6, it looks like this is a truly balanced input.  You will be OK.  :)

Best,

Erik

Thanks Erik, just off the phone with a very helpful guy at McIntosh who confirmed that. He also said anytime you have balanced connections they will outperform single ended no matter how much you spend according to results of bench testing. He also has a 7200.

OP:

Glad to hear it. I’d be curious to know if his results were more than just about common mode noise reduction. This is proven to be better with differential lines, but not sure how often it matters in short runs at home where EMI/RFI pickup is already pretty low.

His point, I believe is that all the things that can be verified by bench testing are a known quantity and anything after that is subjective. He conceded that the ears and brain are far more sensitive than the test equipment and there can be differences beyond the measurement equipment but the quantifiable results are the baseline.

OP:

In any event I’m glad you got your question answered. :) I use XLR cables where I can, just not sure that in my case 2’ long matters. I would ONLY run XLR’s at 25’ long though.

There's NO doubt that XLR's have superior noise performance, at all.  At 2'-3' long though most listeners won't hear a difference.  Those that are right near a radio station may feel  otherwise!

Enjoy!