I Didn't Do My Homework

Over the weekend I was fortunate enough to find a local pair of pristine Infinity IRS Beta speakers for sale. I had been looking for a local pair for five years.

I downloaded the owner's manual from a website and found out that due to their vintage, all connections to and from the servo controller to the amps are unbalanced. Of course I've just purchased two pair of Pass Labs X-600 monoblocs to drive them. These Pass amps only have balanced connections. I am going to have to get XLR adapters to make this setup work.

Am I going to suffer any degradation to the sound due to the adapters? These Pass amps were designed to be used with balanced connections. Will the design intent be compromised by using adapters? Also, I will need a run of about 20 feet. I have read somewhere on Audiogon that XLR's are better at longer runs than RCA's.

The guy that I purchased the speakers from was using a pair of Pass stereo amps, the X-250, that have both XLR and RCA connections.

I love these Pass amps. I hate to think their performance will be compromised by an RCA connection (adapter).

I understand that Cardas makes a good adapter, but imparts a sort of dark sound to the system.

Any comments or past experience on any of this will be appreciated.

thanks........mitch