Balanced or Unbalanced, which way to go?


Am getting ready to upgrade my wiring and need some questions answered. I have all separate components, preamp, two amps and a separate phono stage for MC. I will be using a CD player and turntable in the same system. Would like to know if I can use balanced from preamp to amps with XLR's as the amps owners manual recommends and still get the best sound from CD and turntable? Many people seem to prefer bypassing the preamp with a CD player. I don't think that I can do this as I only have one set of XLR inputs on the amps. I also do not want to have to switch the back of the amps from balanced mode to unbalanced to go from CD listening to vinyl. Anyone with suggestions, I would love to hear from you. Thanks,
Bill
jbangelfish

Showing 2 responses by phild

It all depends on the design of your amp and preamp. I found a balanced/XLR between my pre and amp to be very positive as far as resolution goes. I think it sounds better in every way (and both my digital and analog sources are single-ended). The only downside (for me) is that it is 6db(??) louder, which makes it harder for me to listen to CD sources at low volume levels. The loss of volume control at low volumes is due to my preamps high output and amp's low sensitivity. Others may welcome the extra volume.
I *think* I know what you're asking...

The only way you could use the Cary straight to the amp would be if it had a high enough output to drive the amps, and either the amps or the Cary would have to have some sort of a volume control. It would involve unplugging your preamp from the amps and plugging in the Cary whenever you wanted to play LPs. It could be a huge hassle. You can run the Cary through the AUX input on your preamp, hook the preamp to the amps via the XLR cable, and you're done. The Cary doesn't have to be hooked up to a balanced/XLR input on your preamp. My pre is hooked to my amp via balanced connections, but I don't have any XLR inputs on my pre...all of my sources are going into my preamp via single-ended/RCA inputs and I still noticed a huge improvement going balanced between my preamp and amp. Good luck!