XLR vs RCA

I'd always used RCA connections until my current rig, which has a very long (4 meter) run between the preamps and amplification set. After finding a long pair of balanced cables here for a price I was willing to pay, I gave them a shot between my C50 and MC302, neither of which are balanced. They immediately dropped the noise floor very audibly. My stereo output now floats on a backdrop of complete silence. Nice.

I also tried balanced in a half-meter run between my MVP881BR and C50 to no audible difference I can discern. I left them in place because the balanced cables do have a much more secure connection as noted by others above.

Accordingly, I agree with Al - you simply have to do an empirical evaluation in your rig and decide for yourself.

Welcome aboard and happy listening!

I tried RCA and XLR on my Oppo and the XLR won out easy.

All my interconnects are XLR. What Kijanki said PLUS it's easier to take off and put on so preserves the connectors.

IMO, there is no real benefit of using XLR ICs, unless you require 10m long ICs or your components do not have RCA sockets.

For me it depends on the RCA or XLR electronics and the quality of the RCA or XLR ICs not whether it is RCA or XLR, which is how I hear it.

With RCA ICs, if the noise is well controlled then RCAs can/should sound better than XLR ICs

Unfortunately, XLR electronics remove 2nd order harmonics as part of the XLR noise filtering/cancelling process, which our ears like, but leaves the 3rd order harmonics in place including the noise, which our ears do not like... :)

Even more so, if the Hot and Cold XLR electronics is not well matched then the noise filtering/cancelling process can be even stronger where even more 2nd, and even 3rd, order harmonics are removed. I guess that will provide a smoother, maybe warmer, sound :)

I would not buy any audio equipment or cable without XLRs.
In a nut shell a Balanced signal means better, stronger and cleaner signal between devices.