XLR waste of time ?

XLRs are often better than the best of RCA ICs, no worries there. Plus- all cartridges these days are balanced sources. The advantage of a balanced input on the phono preamp is that you can set up the phono system and run the signal balanced.

If you have ever wondered why the phono is the only single-ended source that needs that extra grounding wire, its because it is actually a balanced source that you are trying to run single-ended. If set up balanced, the ground wire becomes the shield of the interconnect and the plus and minus outputs of the cartridge travel inside that shield. The result is that the cable is more impervious to noise and you can run it a longer distance, especially if you have a low output moving coil (due to the low impedance of the LOMC).

The balanced cable system exists for the **sole purpose** of removing interconnect cable artifacts. You would think that audiophiles would be all over it for this reason; I suspect most people simply don't understand the benefits.

If set up balanced, the ground wire becomes the shield of the interconnect and the plus and minus outputs of the cartridge travel inside that shield. The result is that the cable is more impervious to noise and you can run it a longer distance, especially if you have a low output moving coil (due to the low impedance of the LOMC).

Well...while this may be conceptually useful, it's not strictly correct (nor how it's sometimes executed in the marketplace).

Yes, the cartridge is a balanced source. However, the tone arm cable is sometimes not geometrically and electrically "balanced" - specifically, symmetric positive and negative lead surrounded by a shield.

You'd think this would be the "default" cable geometry for tone arm cables - even with single-ended terminations. However, after ordering a "balanced" OL Silver w/ XLR terminations, I found out it is not (and I'm still irritated about this, but not enough to spend the additional money to have my tone arm cable replaced).

Oftentimes, a "singled ended" cable is terminated with an XLR adapter and called "balanced". The problem with this configuration is you do not have a symmetric positive and negative lead surrounded by a shield, but a single hot lead surrounded by a shield. The shield is responsible for carrying the negative signal.

Not only is the asymmetric geometry a problem, but the shield (that is carrying the negative signal) picks up RFI. And since the positive and negative signals are not polluted with noise equally, the balanced circuit design does not "remove" this noise.

Atmashere is succinct spot-on when he says "balanced cable system exists for the **sole purpose** of removing interconnect cable artifacts." True, 'dat!

Atmasphere: "No worries there"? Really.

What XLRs do you think are so good?

Jimjoyce25,

I believe Atmasphere has had favorable experiences with Neglex 2534 microphone cable from Mogami. I recently picked-up a 6' pair for $87 (tax included) from Guitar Center. I am not disappointed. :-)

Jimjoyce, The XLR connector is just a better design than an RCA one. Thinner pins for less eddy current problems, better contact, firmer connection, etc. This is not to say that ALL XLRs will sound better than ALL RCAs, because as you infer there has been quite a lot of development in RCA connectors, largely to overcome their inherent problems. BNC connectors are inherently way better for single-ended audio and should have been the standard, at least for high-end stuff. The RCA connector is only about convenience.

Nrenter makes a great point. I recently found this out when I was ordering a DIN to XLR phono cable from a guy on eBay who makes them cheaper than what I have to pay for the individual parts. He had no idea how to construct a balanced cable, even though he is in the business. He built it to my specs finally, with separate but equal conductors for the positive and negative halves of the signal and the shield separately grounded. I have not done the research to determine whether this problem is common to even megabuck cables. (I paid $70 for the finished cables, which I then terminated myself with my choice of XLRs.)