Balanced Cables

Cables with XLR connectors are balanced cables.

A balanced cable has 3 identical conductors which terminate to the 3 pins you see on the XLR connector. PIN 1 is GROUND (same as the outer ring on an RCA plug), PIN 2 is the normal SIGNAL (same as the center pin on an RCA plug), and PIN 3 is a an INVERTED SIGNAL.

The above descriptors of balanced cables are not strictly true. XLR connectors do not alone mean the cable is balanced.

A balanced cable has 2 identical conductors (along with a shield) which terminate to the 3 pins you see on the XLR connector. PIN 1 is GROUND (same as the outer ring on an RCA plug, and is connected to the shield), PIN 2 is the normal SIGNAL (same as the center pin on an RCA plug), and PIN 3 is a an INVERTED SIGNAL.

You may think this is just semantics, but this misunderstanding led me to purchase an Origin Live Silver tonearm with XLR connectors, thinking this was a balanced design. After chasing down a hum in my system, it was due to the single-ended tonearm cable design (a single conductor wrapped with a shield) terminated with XLR connectors. Trust me, there is a difference. Do not assume a cable terminated with XLR connectors is a balanced design.

I have always found I preferred single ended, whenever I have tried the comparison. Something appeared to be missing with balanced. It seemed like there was less palpability of images.

If you didn't prefer the balanced cable, may I ask if your source and target components were fully-balanced in design (note - simply having an XLR connector does not imply a fully-balanced design).

Just curious.

Sometimes yes, sometimes no. Even with truly balanced equipment like Sonic Frontiers I preferred single ended more often than not.

A circuit is designed either balanced or unbalanced but most can accomodate the other. A circuit will always sound the best running it the way it was designed...that is a balanced design will work best balanced, and a single ended design will work best single ended. It is best also to use the same configuration throughout - that is balanced turntable (xlr connections)and/or cd player to balanced preamp, to balanced amp.