RCA or XLR Between Digital Separates?

THANKS!
My post meant to generalize theoretically utilizing balanced or RCA connection between digital separates regardless of brand/wire quality and get the idea of advantages/disadvantages using one to another specifically in digital domain. My analogue in/out domain is fully balanced except phonostage and that's where I would less likely switch to unbalanced RCA even for the short wire runs.

Jitter is one of the issues I want to minimize since especially on the higher frequencies I can hear things different from real sound such as hissing, whistling and sometimes inconsistency especially if compared to the vinyl version of the music.

From this discussion I realized that technically the difference between both connections should not be subtle.

Thanks for all your contributions.

Mark M.

Al, you never cease to amaze me. I enjoyed your post. Interesting points, but balanced cables are still my preferred dance partners. :-)

Al,
I too enjoy your erudite and illuminating posts. Thanks!

I have used many high quality AT&T Glass, XLR and BNC cables between various transports and DACs and have found there is no way to predict which will work best with any given combination.

As an example; I recently replaced an expensive and highly regarded XLR cable, which worked great in other systems I've owned, with a relatively inexpensive BNC cable. The BNC cable bested the XLR cable in every respect in this particular application.

So unfortunately, as much as it would make life a bit simpler, there's no theoretical way to select the "best" digital cable. I'm always surprised by how different digital cables can "sound". I remember the old "bits is bits" days fondly.

Thanks very much, guys. Enjoy!

Best regards,
-- Al

Rja, that's EXACTLY my point. I guess we live in the same universe.