xlr question

Streetdaddy, I am not sure I follow what you are saying. Most balanced components of recent years ( to my knowledge ) have the same pin-out. IE. 1=ground 2= non-inverted 3= inverted. It should be shown in the manuals for each component how they are pinned out or you could contact the mfgr. of the components. If they do not match you would have to re-pin one end of the cable, which I have never had to do. Maybe someone who has will post on how?

Didn't I read somewhere that the British use a different XLR pin out from us? What preamp are you using?

To my knowledge, some manufacturers reverse pins 2 & 3. This has no side effect except for phase reversal. If this is the case, the options are use the 'phase' switch on the source (in this case preamp - if there is one) or re-do pins 2 & 3 (don't ! Ask cable manufacturer to do it). In one thread, someone was saying that half of the CD's are recorded in the wrong phase. If this is the case, your chances of listening music in the correct phase is as good as anybody elses. Incidentally, I was fooling around with the 'phase' switch on my DAC. I did notice that some CD's do sound much better when phase is reversed.