XLR a good option for me?

@robelvick - I’ve compared a copper based RCA IC to a Silver based XLR IC and found the RCA cables were superior to silver XLR across the board - and that was on on a $50k Ayre based system - my friend who owns the system also agreed - strange but true - but that’s just one case.

The RCA was from KLE Innovations and was the gZero3 model
- the Silver XLR was from Kimber - I think they were comparable price wise - around $400us/pair

The entire gZero Line is superb and very good "bang for the buck" - even at those prices.
I've owned the gZero20 and it was an excellent single ended cable.

If your IC’s are really long (over 20 ft) XLR will provide better quality sound than single ended designs - in "noisy environments" i.e. lots of RFI/EMI XLR will sound better regardless of length - but that’s in someting like a recording studio where cables lie all over the floor - in the home environment it’s much quieter

If you are looking for more affordable cables then an XLR IC will probably provide better sound than a similarly price single ended IC.

Take a look at what DH Labs has to offer - their Silver Sonics are good and very affordable

Also Signal Cable has some great XLR products like this...
http://signalcable.com/silverresolutionxlr.html

Anticables also has some really nice single ended and Balanced cables that look really different and are good performers

There are many other to choose from - have fun

Hope that helps

Regards... Steve

I'm still curious to whether or not the two components in question have true balanced circuits as @lewm  mentioned.

The reputation of both these companies is stellar, so I would have to believe they are true Balanced implementations.

But - to avoid the guessing - contact each company and ask them !

XLR is no longer just for the high-end esoteric builds - Lots of companies are using them

With the IC’s available these days it costs just pennies to include XLR. Yet another reason to believe they are true balanced implementation.

FYI - my Simaudio Moon phono stage is a true balanced implementation and cost only a little more than the PS Audio unit.

Regards

@lewm - my apologies I was not really making my point very well - I was referring to the Balun circuitry that removes the noise. There are a few different methods available to the circuit designer, but in today’s world IC’s are a very cost effective method of addressing this particular aspect.

Regards...