RCA to XLR adapters?

Ralph,

Up north?
I didn't know that there was anyplace north of you.
Top of the world, Ma!

Marty

One note of caution: Not all Balanced amps are created equal.

I put this very question to ARC's tech team some years back and learned -

ARC's balanced amps (according to ARC) will perform "very poorly" if you try this scheme. I'm not particularly technically oriented, but my understanding is that the lack of noise cancellation in the single ended signal will trip the protection circuitry at less than half the rated output. My 122 WPC VT30SE will output +/- 50 WPC (IIRC) before the protection police shut down the party.

Disclaimer: This posting is based on my recollection of a coversation with ARC's tech guy many years back, so I hope I got it right and that this explanation makes sense to those more knowledgeable of the issues at hand.

Marty

Ralph,

The protection circuit issue with the ARC amp may be weird, but it doesn't mean the amp needds to be fixed, either. I learned of the issue not because I had a problem, but because I called ARC before I even tried the approach. They explained the issue to me as an inevitable result of the amp's design. Now, it may not be broken, but that doesn't mean you have to like the design.

Of course, it is possible that I "misremembered" the explanation, but I don't think so.

Marty

Ralph,

I can only tell you what ARC told me.

They said that RCA to XLR adaptors would cause the VT-130SE to suffer "serious" (or words to that effect) performance deterioration including loss of more than half of the power output capability. They weren't talking about my amp, specifically, but rather every example of the VT 130SE. And ARC said that it wouldn't work properly for - as best as I can recall - the reason I cited, lack of noise rejection tripping the protection.

As a non-technical guy, it would be hard for (and silly of) me to try to defend their design decisions (much less try to justify the consequences of those decisions). I take it from your post (and several of the posts preceding yours) that the technically informed/design community types out there do not approve of this approach. I would never argue with you guys.

All I can say is that the amp sounds great - although I've never tried to use it with RCA to XLRs ;-}

Marty

Ralph,

Isn't ARC in your 'hood? Don't you Minnesota high end manufacturing types huddle over hot cocoa when the winter sets in?

Seriously, if you do cross paths with any of their tech folks, put the question to them. I might have somehow mangled the "why", but I'm just about 100% certain that they told me that the design will put out less than half the rated power when used with a single ended input signal via RCA to XLR adaptors.

Marty