Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2009/01/16
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]2009-01-14-22:44:59 Greg Lorenzo: > I've got a new amplifier to hook-up to a new pre-processor. I can > connect the two together with either RCA or XLR cables. > > Is there a noticeable benefit to hooking these up with XLR cables rather > then RCA jacks? > > The distance between both units is approximately 4 feet. One advantage of a balanced connection is noise cancellation -- the northgoing and southgoing halves of the signal presumably pick up the the same noise signals, which cancel out when halves are summed. But I doubt this is much of an issue with a four-foot run. The other potential advantage (or disadvantage) depends on the internal architecture of your equipment. Several of the very best lines of audio equipment are laid out inside, to the greatest extent possible, in a balanced fashion -- separate traces, distinct D/A converters and driver circuitry... if the pre-pro and amp are designed this way, then I'd expect balanced cabling (if of similar quality to the single-ended cables you'd otherwise be using) to sound better -- in part because there'd be extra conversions from balanced to single-ended to balanced at this interface. That, and some of the magic might leak out. http://www.balanced.com/ http://www.spectralaudio.com/ http://www.krellonline.com/ http://www.marklevinson.com/ http://www.thetadigital.com/