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Mix of RCA Balanced Cables. Is it ok?

I have been advised against using RCA and Balanced cables both in the same system. I was told that unless you have balanced cables all round, you are wasting your money. How true is this?

Does anyone know if RCA to Balance converters actually work? I think there are 2 types, one is the little plug kind and the other is a chassis kind. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
ks8
jfrech's avatar
jfrech
1,816 posts
 
No, I don't think so. I have a BAT VK50SE and a BAT VK60. I have balanced from my CD and analog sources, but RCA from SAT and DVD. They sound fine. The balanced does help, if the components are truly balanced. Stick with balanced where you can, but it's not life or death.
ljgj
955 posts
 
The above advice is good - if it is a long run cable then balanced will help with picking up noise along the way and sometimes it will add some gain to the situation which may benefit your components - otherwise it is just one of those extra deal/cost things.
albertporter's avatar
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albertporter
4,949 posts
 
I agree with Jfrech. I have my Aesthetix Io phono stage running balanced to my Aesthetix Callisto preamp. The Aesthetix pieces are true balanced and work well that way. My Wolcott amps are single ended design, so I choose to drive the 11 meter run as such, and it performs flawlessly. As mentioned by Jfrech, the pieces that are truly balanced may benefit from being run that way, adaptors may even hurt the performance.
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