XLR or single ended cables and why?

In my mind, I think of it this way. First: Do you need to deal with very long runs (say greater than 30 feet, and yes, I did just pull that number out of the air ;) between source and pre or between pre and amp? If so, stick with XLR. If not, go with whatever is attached to the equipment you think sounds the best. The only place XLR will hurt is your wallet when you factor in the premium most makers charge for having it and the only place it will help is on extremely long runs. Make your decision based on what equipment sounds best to you, not on what type of interconnect it uses. Hope that helps!

Depends if the components are designed as truely balanced or not. For instance, don't by BAT gear and run it single ended. Your not getting the sound you paid for.

I would reccomend a quick forum search on this subject.

I have read some fabulous threads here on this subject, which included the participation of the designers of some of Audiogon's most well respected gear!

Since in your post you do not state whether your gear is balanced by design, there is no simple answer.

Originally almost exclusively reserved for pro-audio use, balanced components are designed to operate in unpredictable professional working environments They offer maximal S/N (signal to noise ratios), and standardized connectivity. Today's well-designed balanced high-end equipment, when connected with balanced IC's, offers the benefits of lower noise floor and better radio frequency (RF) rejection.

On the other hand, well-designed unbalanced equipment offers sonic (and sometimes lower price) benefits which make simpler circuit topologies popular. These designs can, however, be more prone to RF noise, which has become (with Cell phone, microwave, computer, and WiFi) an increasing feature of the home environment.

Hope this helps,

If you don't find your answers by reading previous threads, please let us know more about the boxes you are connecting up.

For the music,

Sorry, It's the Krell 40oXi and the companion SACD Standard. Both has balanced connnections. I have numerous singled-ended RCAs from Kimber, H.T,Audioquest...Cablings are expensive nowadays and I am just abt going broke for my hobby.

I have run 20' MIT 350 EVO, 30' Kubala-Sosna Emotion and 30' Purist Dominus RCA cables, and 25' MIT 350 Ref and 30' NBS Statement XLR cables, and there was only one issue of noise - surprisingly the NBS Statement XLR 30' cable. This cable had a low-level hum which was only resolved when it was re-terminated to less than 20'. I suspect this had more to do with the NBS's weave design than anything else.

There was never an issue of radio-station pickup, interference or other problems due to appliances, AC units, sump pumps, etc., turning on or off in the environment, with these longer cables. The 30' RCA Dominus is an awesome cable with no problems whatsoever. There are a lot of posts on A'gon that claim you need to go balanced cabling for such long runs but my experience runs counter to this. It's all in the cable design, not its length.

Concerning what audio reviewers swear by, well, who cares! Why not try this out for yourself? The only way to know for sure which cable termination works well for any given component is to try the exact brand/model of a cable in both RCA and XLR termination. Once you change either the brand or model, the only valid test is to get that same brand/model in the other termination and listen again.

I have made several cable comparisons with many truly balanced ARC, BAT and Aesthetix electronics and with some others that have XLR connectors but which were not truly balanced designs. Each and every time, the XLR cable always outperformed the same RCA cable with truly balanced products. The most dramatic difference was the Aesthetix Io phono stage. There was a huge improvement in the protrayal of space and decays with the XLR cable. Even when I tried lower performance NBS XLR cables, these easily outperformed the much higher priced/performance Kubala-Sosna or Purist Dominus RCA cables here. But when I was able to try the K-S XLR cable, it was absolutely breathtaking. The comparison between the K-S Emotion RCA vs. XLR was quite an awakening for me with the Io. The Io simply needs to be run from its balanced outputs to do its magic.

I then did the exact same experiment with the Manley Ref DAC. This has XLR connectors but is not a truly balanced product as it uses transformers to generate the complimentary output. Here, there was barely a difference between the two terminations of the K-S Emotion cable. And this difference was most likely due to the Aesthetix Callisto line stage operating "better" with a balanced input. But unlike the case of the Io experiment, I could drop in a Dominus or K-S RCA and either of these would destroy the NBS XLR. The Manley clearly did not require the use of XLR cables to perform to a high level as did the Io. Here, the sonic strengths of the K-S and Purist shined through independent of the cable termination.

If you find an XLR cable that works well for you, it may not cost any more than the RCA equivalent. Some companies charge a little more and some do not. You have to try this all out for yourself and put your audio magazines back on the book case.

John