Electrocompaniet EMC1 CDP owner's suggestions

It depends on your pre-amp. If you have a truly balanced pre-amp like a Pass X series or an Adcom GFP750, it should sound better balanced. If you have a pre-amp that just adds balanced inputs & immediately uses a converter to deliver to a single ended (non balanced) circuit, it probably won't help & can even degrade the sound to use balanced interconnect.

Mine sounds better balanced out no matter what hookups the preamp has.

Thanks for your suggestions. Ljgj is right. I firstly hooked up directly from my EMC1 to Berning amp with volume control via single ended the sound was not transparent and high-and midranges sounded roll-off. Since I switched to XLR by using XLR interconnects(Granite Audio 470) to an XLR adapters for the amp the sound suddenly has a huge soundstage and having more high-and midranges and a sweet pot is up to the ceiling. I have also tried to use preamps(CJ-16LS, First Sound Deluxe MKII and Emotive Audio Erato)but none of them can match with the Berning amp.

The EMC-1 uses a truly-balanced design, and as such mine sounds better through SPM XLRs to my Aleph P also. After modding a couple for friends I can't help but notice that the XLR jacks are soldered directly to the analogue output board, too, whereas the RCSa are fed by a few inches of really cheap, unshielded wire, using only solder without cold-weld crimping. So if you're forced to use the RCAs I'd at least replace the lead-out wires with silver shielded ones and CRIMP them at the RCA jacks as well adding a dollop of silver solder. Gotta help at least a little. But balanced IS really the way to go with this magnificent player. If you need help getting the SE "UP'grade installed, let me know, as I have the parts, and can save you 50%. Cheers.