BALANCED VS UNBALANCED

It's not just cable types, but you can safely ignore it. Avoid any cheap equipment that claims to be "balanced" and don't have anything to do with balanced.

Stick with single-ended connections - RCA plugs.

Regards,

Metralla is correct. RCA (single eneded) cables are fine for relatively short runs. In order to take full advantage of "balanced" technology, your preamp and amp must be "differentialy balanced". Many amps and preamps out there have XLR inputs or outputs, but aren't differentialy balanced. Another advantage of XLR cables is if you have very heavy cables. XLRs lock tightley in place. Heavy RCAs can bend the center pin over time.

Bob----great reference to share with us---thank you!

Yoby is correct. Differentially-balanced designs (Ayre, Krell, Classe' Audio, BAT, etc) are the correct and optimal method of deploying 'balanced' signal technology. Inexpensive equipment with XLR inputs and/or outputs (often called 'balanced') frequently uses cheap op-amps to convert their single-ended signal to 'balanced' and these op-amps normally hurt sound quality. For this reason, it may indeed be best to avoid using the XLR inputs and outputs of inexpensive equipment, instead using the single-ended RCA connections.

However, some of the principle advantages of using 'balanced' (XLR) interconnects are still there even in non-differentially-balanced systems. Namely, the reduction in noise vs RCA-type interconnects, especially in long runs. Also, XLR interconnects are less vunerable to hum.

I find it puzzling that Metralla is so negative toward 'balanced' equipment, yet he has a BALANCED AUDIO TECHNOLOGY PREAMP that is fully differentially-balanced.