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Crazy technical question

Posted by Cousin Billy on December 22, 2015 at 13:02:27:
I'm having difficulty understanding RCA (unbalanced) wiring.

This is what I think I know about XLR (balanced) wiring.

Let's use one channel of a phono cartridge for this discussion.

A phono cartridge is a natural balanced source. The red lead is connected to pin 1 of my XLR. This is the positive portion of the waveform. The white lead is connected to pin 3. This is the negative portion of the waveform. Let's forget about ground for now.

At this point the waveform is preserved.

This XLR connection goes into my MP-1 (dual mono) pre amp, is amplified, and exits as a balanced waveform. All good so far.

The waveform enters and exits my MA-1 as a balanced signal.

The positive terminal of the amplifier manipulates the positive portion of the waveform, and the negative portion from the negative terminal.

All good.

RCA confuses me. I recently cannibalized an old rca interconnect. The positive wire was soldered to the center pin, and the negative wire to the outer ring. What confuses me is the shielding wire. This wire is also soldered to the outer ring.

Does this mean the RCA wire only carries the positive portion of the waveform?

Are both halves of the phono cartridge's information being used?

If the negative portion of the waveform is tied to the shielding, how does the music stay in tact?

Confused Cousin Billy