xlr question

Streetdaddy, I am not sure I follow what you are saying. Most balanced components of recent years ( to my knowledge ) have the same pin-out. IE. 1=ground 2= non-inverted 3= inverted. It should be shown in the manuals for each component how they are pinned out or you could contact the mfgr. of the components. If they do not match you would have to re-pin one end of the cable, which I have never had to do. Maybe someone who has will post on how?

Didn't I read somewhere that the British use a different XLR pin out from us? What preamp are you using?

To my knowledge, some manufacturers reverse pins 2 & 3. This has no side effect except for phase reversal. If this is the case, the options are use the 'phase' switch on the source (in this case preamp - if there is one) or re-do pins 2 & 3 (don't ! Ask cable manufacturer to do it). In one thread, someone was saying that half of the CD's are recorded in the wrong phase. If this is the case, your chances of listening music in the correct phase is as good as anybody elses. Incidentally, I was fooling around with the 'phase' switch on my DAC. I did notice that some CD's do sound much better when phase is reversed.

Unless your system is absolute phase consistent from input to output, you shouldn't be concerned about the swapping of pins on the XLR connector. If you preamp or digital components has a phase switch, you could experiment to see if there is a discernable difference between settings. Any given component may or maynot maintain absolute phase. You really have to dig the information out of the manufacturers. A few weeks ago there was a post on the effects of phase. I suggest you search and read.

IF your system maintains phase and IF your preamp doesn't have a phase switch, you can easily reverse the phase by reversing the phase on BOTH pairs of speaker cables. However, as pointed out, this is likely to be unecessary due to the poor production habits of the studios.

If you decide that a permanent change is called for (which several posts have suggested is open to doubt), Metaphysics is certainly right that switching speaker cables is the way to go. Changing XLR pin connections is doable but more work and you might someday forget that you've got an oddball cable, a point made by Robert Harley in his "Complete Guide to High-End Audio". I have it on (what I regard as) good authority that it's a rare CD that maintains the same polarity throughout, so a phase reversal switch, if you have one, will have to be used a lot, if you notice a difference.

I bought some magnet wire from rat shack and some xlr's and soldered the matching #'s. Sound's reeeeaaaly good.This was brought up by Bruce in a thread about a month ago. Has been a life saver.