Newbie balanced cable help

The CD3 MKII will sound better when run balanced. AQ cables are a very good match with ARC, and I would recommend an Amazon XLR.

try Acoustic Zen Silver Ref MkII from CD3 to Ref and then Acoustic Zen Matrix Ref MkII from Ref to amp. Acoustic Zen Hologram II is a VERY nice speaker cable. All these are priced pretty good on the used market and if you don't like what you hear(I kind of doubt it) you can always sell without loosing money. As far as the power cord for CD3, I read a review of this player where reviewer had to go up to Shunyata Anaconda VX to get improvement over stock cord, so it's up to you to spend this kind of dough on PC but I wouldn't do it. In the very same review it's mentioned that CD3 sounds better balanced, so you're ona right path I think.

Any cable from a guitar or music store will do. Yorkville for example. I would not worry about the cables too much. They will be connecting to very high impedance loads and will be carrying very little current....it is hard to justify spending a lot on XLR cables. A good shield and a good solid connector is about all you can ask for.

Thanks for the replies. I probably shouldn't have said "mid-level", because I guess I'm not really ready to do $100's on AQ or AZ cables (Thanks for taking the time, Zargon and Audphile1). I just pulled the trigger on the Ref2 so I'm still breathing hard (first big time piece for me); cable costs are gonna have to be kinda basic for a while.

Shadorne, that sounds like a pretty good solution, I'll look into it. Thanks.

Tripper, is that your website? That looks pretty good, too. Thanks.

Lrdmax, catch your breath and enjoy your ARC stuff. ARC is one of the best. Should be fun!!!! Anyway how much were you going to spend on cables now?