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How to go from RCA to XLR?

I've got an Aragon Stage One processor with RCA outputs and two Aragon Palladium 1K monoblocks with XLR inputs. I know there are a lot of RCA-XLR cables available, but a fabricator told me you have to know which XLR pins are "hot" and these have to match the amps' input circuitry or you will damage the amp.
So how do you know which pins to make hot when you order the cables? When you buy these cables "off the shelf" are you just hoping you get lucky and they match up with your equipment?
Thanks
noslop
rwwear
2,866 posts
 

Sounds like you need a single ended to balanced transformer like the Jensen model.
almarg's avatar
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almarg
9,670 posts
 
Rww -- I get your drift; touche! :)

But the op should note in the reference that he can get a great deal of noise rejection just with the cabling arrangement that Whitlock describes (his diagram labelled "correct" on page 29), without the expense and possible sonic signature of a transformer.

And as I indicated earlier, even if he just uses the adapter as originally envisioned (Whitlock's diagram labelled "wrong" on page 29), he would have noise performance comparable to a fully single-ended arrangement, which may prove to be satisfactory anyway.

Regards,
-- Al
rwwear
2,866 posts
 
It should be fairly easy to try anyway if he's still here.
rwwear
2,866 posts
 
I still think that there will be a loss of power if the Palladium amps are using a
bridged balanced scheme which I suspect. From what I've read the Palladiums
are based on either the 4004 or 8008 stereo amps depending on vintage.
atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
11,753 posts
 
Rwwear, if you have only a single-ended source, get a transformer from Jensen to convert from SE to balanced. That will assure that there will be no issues.
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