two89w Posted December 22, 2012 Posted December 22, 2012 Am I going to hear a major difference if I were to use XLR balanced cables with an RCA adapter on one end compared to just normal RCA interconnects of the same brand?
Phantom Posted December 22, 2012 Posted December 22, 2012 I would say this is like "how long is a piece of string?" It depends on what you wish to connect to what and you need to be careful that a device claiming it has balanced inputs actually does have the circuitry to work in balanced mode. There are instances of equipment having XLR sockets with no internal changes, but there are many here far more qualified to comment on this than I would be. In my own experience the differences can be very subtle and almost always subjective, but in any case, I wouldn't personally be bothering if you had to use an adaptor. Just my 02.
hochopeper Posted December 22, 2012 Posted December 22, 2012 (edited) As I understand it you are suggesting two alternatives: rca-> rca xlr -> rca Everything else being the same the performance should be the same, they both operate as single ended. In terms of chosing source and load device with either both balanced or both single ended then one of the best descriptions of the electrical difference between the interconnect choice that I have seen is by Henry Ott in this article - http://www.hottconsu...connections.pdf - the length of the interconnect that he uses in his example is far longer than what I would expect in a domestic system though. Edited December 22, 2012 by hochopeper
Recommended Posts