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Hi Guys, I'm considering buying some decent cable interconnects that will connect my Luxman phono pre and my McIntosh MC-275 power amp. The Mac will accept balanced XLRs. And the Luxman will only take RCAs. Companies such as Audioquest and the link DO offer cable with each end being different...one side XLR and one side RCA. Can someone please tell me if there is any advantage to buy such a cable or should I just stick with a cable with both ends being RCAs. Thanks!
Follow Ups:
Welcome! MoogerFooger.
I find that an XLR makes for a better connector, thereby, making for a better signal path. Keep us posted on your purchase decision.
Good and cheap
Kind regards,
bg
AFAIK, original MC-275s had RCA inputs, and the later MC-275s with XLR also had RCA inputs.
So the OP is asking is there any advantage to using the XLR input with a single-ended source, specifically with hybrid (or hermaphrodite) cables.
JM
Personally i think that Rcas are sometimes badly executed (i.e. tolerances and materials).
In particular I like Cardas rodhium ones and for a high level unit i would even think to replace the stock ones with them.
And then i would stick with good unbalanced cables.
But my feeling is that RCAs quality is very important.
Maybe the best it could be to use a pair from the same manufacturer ?
Regards,
bg
Kind regards,
bg
Edits: 02/23/14 02/23/14
I am using a preamp (BAT VK 3i) with balanced outs, and a power amp with RCA ins. I have tried using the 3i single ended to the amp. However, things always sound better to me when I use the XLR outs via XLR/RCA adaptors. I use the ones pictured above.
What occurs to me - assuming that it is worthwhile to use an XLR/RCA adapter over a single ended out run - is it better to have a hybrid cable and forego an adaptor? Usually it it good to avoid an adaptor.
You ask a few questions, the answers to which are un-knowable as a matter of theory plus practice (even to the designer-builders).
So, the only answer is to try, while keeping an eye out for the differences that invalidate the experiment.
1. Your setup is 180 degrees apart from the OP's. (You: XLR out/RCA in. He: RCA out, XLR in.) Thanks for playing. Game over.
2. In theory, avoiding an adapter is good.
3. Stabilant 22 can help make it less bad if you have to use an adapter. If you don't know what Stabilant 22 is, please keep on not reading my column in Stereophile.
4. Whether an hermaphroditic cable works better than a cable plus an adapter depends upon the quality of the two cables and that of the adapter.
My guess is, Cardas clear plus a Cardas adapter, installed with Stabilant 22, will beat a pair of hermaphroditic RCA/XLR cables from Markertek at $50 or so a pair.
nuf sed
JM
Thank you for responding.
"1. Your setup is 180 degrees apart from the OP's. (You: XLR out/RCA in. He: RCA out, XLR in.)..."
Yes. I did not carefully read the OP. I should have done so before posting.
" ... Thanks for playing. Game over."
You are welcome. What is your point?
"3. Stabilant 22 can help make it less bad if you have to use an adapter. If you don't know what Stabilant 22 is, please keep on not reading my column in Stereophile."
I do know what it is. Does that mean that I have to stop not reading your column in Stereophile?
In conclusion, I would also like to thank you for your sigh, the clipped, infantile sarcasm and the condescension.
You obviously can read carefully when you want to.
JM
How many years have you posted here, there and everywhere? Today(yesterday) you're extra cranky with folks who do this as an audio sport. Stereophile status notwithstanding, why engage the unwashed? State your piece and go have a beverage.
"It's all fun and games until someone doesn't pick up on the sarcasm"
I am glad i do not have any saintly qualities. Everyone knows I WILL YELL at them anytime anyplace. for no damn reason at all.
Lucky My not being a saint and all.
Then you got folks like Saint John Marks. Who is nice the all and sundry for years, then slips once and is castigated and maligned for being mean and cruel.
How sad. (natturally i am sad about the attitude, not sad that John is an actual human being and not really a saint;)
Mother Elizabeth. Kind of a nice ring. Or Mother Liz and Saint John. A pair made in heaven.
"It's all fun and games until someone doesn't pick up on the sarcasm"
sorry... couldn't help myself!
or queen mother copper kimber... (from the frugal abbey)
I am more of a Brother Crump - of a Higher Purity lol! (that is the house of 6 nines)
The Devil's Advocate has a file as thick as a phone book.
Ciao,
John
Personally i have only experience with cleaners.
I used once the outrageously smelling trichlorethylene
It was not just good. It was fantastic ! I swear.
And i was amazed how dirty the Rcas were. Unbelievable.
But the sound was like another system.
I am not joking.
But that smell ... it is also quite toxic.
The point is that i understood how quality of contacts is of paramount importance to the final result.
Regards,
bg
Kind regards,
bg
Imsge: Male XLR RFI/EMI noise and dust protection caps
As John Marks indicated, the whole point of implementing a balanced XLR interface is based on both the input and output circuits being a balanced design. If either end is unbalanced, an interconnect cable with an rca connector at one end, and an XLR connector at the other is simply an "optimized adapter", in that a detachable RCA -> XLR adapter with sonic degradation issues is omitted from the signal path.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balanced_audio
In your case, it would be better to simply cover the XLR input jacks with inexpensive male XLR RFI/EMI noise and dust protection caps and continue to use an unbalanced, single-ended rca interconnect cable for your needs:
See link:
In practice, you never know, but any slight difference you might hear, I would attribute to peculiarities of the amp, and not the cable itself.
In other words, the XLR input may have a slightly better signal path than its the single-ended RCA input. Or its jack makes a better contact. Whatever.
But you will not be able to take advantage of the usual reason for using a balanced cable with XLR plugs, which is, carrying a true dual-differential (phase and antiphase) "balanced" signal, because your phono stage is outputting hot and ground rather than phase and antiphase.
Hybrid cables such as that are used usually when the component that is receiving the single-ended (RCA) input doesn't have any RCA jacks on the back.
That does not seem to be your case.
Good luck,
John
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