XLR or RCA!
- Thread starter Dom500
- Start date
darrenyeats
pfm Member
BM DAC1 linearity allegedly measures much better via XLR.
Forgive Rant, RCA =Really Cr@p Always. it was designed and patented as a service dis-connection device for separating amps from tuner/preamps in ancient console units. My experience servicing stereo gear over the decades has definitely bred both familiarity and contempt. It's not that you can't buy better RCA plugs/jacks -but most manufacturers don't use them and if you use a great plug into a cheesy cheap as chips jack-the standard RCA problem of the center of the jack spreading will still be a problem. You will encounter zero RCA jacks on scientific , medical or test equipment -this has been so for 50? years or more. Even if all you get from XLR connection is markedly better plugs and jacks -at least you are avoiding a "hope for the best" connector .
bigfish786
pfm Member
I didn’t spend fortunes on my Xlr. £75 for Black Rhodium intro. I like em. They sound great, are well made. What more could you want? Oh, and made in the uk too. 
gez
pfm Member
Yes and no. I thought I could but then when I took the time to actually level match them I could not in all honesty say i could hear anything that I couldn't prove wasn't just my imagination.
I did it with a modern Krell integrated which has a fully balanced design from input to output stage, and a CD player that also has fully balanced amplification design, so the balanced option should have had every oportunity to have an advantage (unlike with many other amps where the XLR input just gets converted to unbalanced before feeding the actual first amplification stage). The amp has input level adjustments, so tried both increasing the input volume on the unbalanced input to match the XLR level and reducing the input volume on the XLR to match the unbalanced level. Neither approach resulted in any difference in the quality of the sound. I couldn't even hear any difference in background noise between the two.
Oh and I did the comparison with two different RCA interconnects and two different XLR interconnects. None of the combinations sounded any different from each other.
gez
pfm Member
That's because balanced is 6dB higher level than unbalanced. So if you just swap between the two input types in an amplifier with no level adjustment on the inputs, the XLR input will be louder. If it's not, then it's not a true balanced output/cable/input connection.
gez
pfm Member
Should output double the voltage of RCA, otherwise it's not a true balanced output.
If you've spent any time around pro audio gear, microphones, consoles, active monitors, you know all about XLRs. They work, they are rugged, and they are a pain in the arse to solder. There's no magic though, it's just a bit of wire with some plugs on the end. There are also 5 pin XLRs, not very often seen in audio, which get used for DMX stuff, and 7 pin XLRs, which some valve mics use, when they have an on-board valve, and/or an external box to mix multiple capsules.
The other option which gets used in pro-audio which hasn't been mentioned for balanced connections are bantams and 1/4 inch jacks. These tend to get used in situations where there's likely to be lots of plugging/unplugging, so patch boards and inserts on consoles, but the lack of a latch stops them getting used where it would be embarrassing for them to get pulled out mid set. Both would be pretty good for home audio.
The other option which gets used in pro-audio which hasn't been mentioned for balanced connections are bantams and 1/4 inch jacks. These tend to get used in situations where there's likely to be lots of plugging/unplugging, so patch boards and inserts on consoles, but the lack of a latch stops them getting used where it would be embarrassing for them to get pulled out mid set. Both would be pretty good for home audio.
Hmm, I think that's taking an implementation detail you've seen and applying it everywhere and assuming that is the how it works. If you take a balanced connection and connect the hot to a single ended input, yes, you'll see half the voltage, hence 6db lower, but that's not the same as saying that if you connect two bits of equipment together with balanced or unbalanced, you'd get a level difference.
For example, RCA connections commonly run -10dBV (so around 0.3v) whilst it's common for XLRs to be run at +4dBu (4v), so there's quite a level difference common in pro vs domestic audio, and when you take XLRs into home equipment, you'd need to read through what is going on to work out how 'hot' signals are bouncing around.
MotherSky
pfm Member
Yes - DAC to preamp using pairs of TQ Ultra Black with RCA and XLR terminations
The XLR output stage on my DAC (Aqua La Scala II opto) has some sort of fancy transformer coupling, so possibly this accounts for the difference (?) - either way, I prefer the XLRs and will be sticking with them
timpy
Speaker Abuser
There's nothing wrong with this if done correctly of course. The destination equipment doesn't need to be balanced end to end to take advantage of the additional noise immunity balanced connections should offer, so long as the balanced signal is correctly summed at the input and not just have the cold pin grounded, where any advantage would be lost.