xlr vs rca

I'd stay away from the adapters..the cardas i used on my cdp put huge noise into the system...balanced is not always better anyway but some components are optimized for best performance with xlr's, like BAT gear. my raysonic cdp has rca and xlr but I use the rca since my amp is only rca.
Larry

It is not always the case. It depends on the interconnected equipment and on the electromagnetic noise in the environment.

Kal

Balanced is not better because it is "balanced" but beecause so many rca's are really bad conncetion wise. Balanced sounds worse to me in many cases, but I prefer the sound of XLR's to RCA's. A contradiction??? No, I use pin 1 gnd, and pin 2 +, and avoid pin 3 and use the XLR's. Balanced cable is good if it is shielded, and you have a long run, say more than 10M and a noise issue. No noise issue, no need for balanced cable. I like the no 3 pin setup best. Jallen

Dear Jamiek: What make a balanced unit is not the interconect cables but that the electronic audio link ( item ) was/is designed in balanced way.

There are units that are fully balanced ( input to output ) where you need a balanced cable at the input and output ( not because it comes with XLR ), this means that the cable internal configuration and connection to its XLR termination connectors are true balanced.
There are other units that are a only output balanced design with unbalanced( RCA ) inputs.

So it is not the cable termination the one that tell you if it is balanced or not but the audio electronic item internal design.

One advantage on balanced designs is that noise/distortions canceled between the balanced design.

So you don't have any advantage if you use XLR connectors in a unbalanced audio elewctronic item because this item accept only unbalanced audio signals.