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Is the only difference between these interconnects the terminations, and if so can you re-terminate an RCA interconnect with XLR and have the same performance as if the interconnect were XLR to begin with?
Thanks in advance for responses.
No, they are not. A balanced cable has seperate runs of +, - and ground. They provide better immunity from outside interference and system induced hum, lower the noise floor and reduce signal loss over long distances. Balanced cables only apply to a system that is truly balanced by design, otherwise use RCA's.
dave_b
nm
Not all XLR cables are actually balanced. Some interconnects terminated with XLR connectors only have two conductors, in which a truly balanced interconnect needs three conductors. Say you have a twisted pair interconnect terminated with RCA's...if you wanted to make that cable balanced you would need to add a third conductor.
All for the love of music :-)
Cables with RCA connectors are called single-ended. They have a 'hot' conductor and a return conductor, or multiple wires for each conductor function. The audio signal is a voltage between the hot and return conductors, where the return conductor voltage is close to audio ground. Many single-ended cables are coaxial, where the hot conductor is in the center and the return conductor is the shield around it. There are also shielded and unshielded single-ended cables with the two conductors as twisted pair wires.
Cables with the typical XLR connectors should have three conductors, although it is possible to make them with two. Most of these cables are called balanced, because the audio signal consists of a normal hot, an inverted hot (signal voltage goes negative when the normal hot goes positive, and vice versa), and an audio ground. "Balanced" means the equipment has the same impedance from normal hot to ground and inverted hot to ground, at both the source and load ends. Thus, these cables will typically have the normal and inverted conductors as equivalent members of some sort of braid, where the capacitance of each is the same to preserve the balanced impedances.
Not all audio equipment with XLR jacks has this balanced impedance arrangement. Since the balanced impedance setup is what gives superior noise immunity, the equipment that does not have it will not give you improved performance with balanced cables compared to single-ended cables of the same quality. It is important to find out how your equipment is configured before investing in balanced cables.
All this means the answer to your question is generally no, but there can be cases where a balanced cable has been used to make up a single-ended version.
Three conductors or potential conductors alone is not enough for a proper balanced cable, the three conductors need to be symmetrical. Don't use coax.
Yes to the Wirewizard. ...and too, unless your component is truly balanced, you will get no benefit from using balanced interconnect. Some components have an XLR connection just to make you feel the component is capable of more...like the golfers who have the most expensive clubs, shoes and bag, who can't hit the ball. There are components also that are designed single ended and can use balanced operation, and then there are the right ones who design a balanced circuit and include RCA connections as well as XLR's...the RCA's for mere temporary convenience.
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