XLR waste of time ?

XLRs are often better than the best of RCA ICs, no worries there. Plus- all cartridges these days are balanced sources. The advantage of a balanced input on the phono preamp is that you can set up the phono system and run the signal balanced.

If you have ever wondered why the phono is the only single-ended source that needs that extra grounding wire, its because it is actually a balanced source that you are trying to run single-ended. If set up balanced, the ground wire becomes the shield of the interconnect and the plus and minus outputs of the cartridge travel inside that shield. The result is that the cable is more impervious to noise and you can run it a longer distance, especially if you have a low output moving coil (due to the low impedance of the LOMC).

The balanced cable system exists for the **sole purpose** of removing interconnect cable artifacts. You would think that audiophiles would be all over it for this reason; I suspect most people simply don't understand the benefits.

Nrenter, Its a fact that there are cable guys out there that have no idea how to execute balanced cables, especially ones for phono!

Most arms that have a 5-pin connection are perfect balanced sources, as the wires are shielded by the arm tube itself. This includes all the old BSR, Garrard, Dual and other inexpensive 'tables from the 60s and 70s- they are very easy to convert to balanced without any mods to the arm at all. With newer arms that use the 5-pin DIN, its easy- just change out the cable.

In fact it is even possible to set up an arm with RCAs for true balanced operation, as long as there is a grounding post and the RCA jacks are isolated from ground. We make a special cable for that. It can't be done if the arm ground is tied to the minus of one channel (which causes a ground loop), like you see in some air-bearing arms. BTW it is this ground loop issue which is why most arms employ 5 wires (the 5th for ground) rather than 4.

Jimjoyce25, the standard Neutrik will do the job. Its available in both silver and gold versions. There are of course exotic XLR connector varieties, but IMO/IME, if the balanced line is set up correctly, they don't make any significant difference.

One way of looking at this- RCA single-ended cables strive towards a sort of goal of perfection. If the balanced connection is set up right, its already there; IOW the RCA will always be falling slightly short of what any balanced cable can do.

This is not only because of the balanced aspect but also because of the fact that if balanced lines are set up correctly, they are *low impedance*. Low output moving coils play perfectly into this; nearly all are 'low impedance', i.e. they can *drive* a load of 600 ohms (or less) and sound **better** for doing so.

Jimjoyce25 All the subtle design parameters, like cable geometry, purity of materials, conductors spacing, the use of platings in connectors and the like vanish as variables when you use the low impedance balanced line system.

In high impedance single ended setups, all these things make a difference and bring you closer to the truth of the music, as you have experienced.

IOW, in single-ended systems the cables are a sort of 'hidden cost' and are paramount to the performance of the cartridge or preamp in that system. In a balanced setup, the cable cost and impact it has on the sound is insignificant. In short (if done correctly, as we have seen from prior posts that is an issue) its a transformation to go from RCAs to balanced.

Nrenter, you got it exactly right. That is why I am careful to stress 'properly set up' and 'low impedance' as those things are critical to getting the performance out of cables in general and balanced lines in particular.

Preamps with RCAs tend to have high output impedances which make them susceptible to differences in cable construction.

Most of the high end audio does not recognize this simple fact, because most manufacturers are doing balanced because it is something trendy, rather than researching exactly what the benefits are are and in particular **how to win those benefits**.

So as a result we have a lot of variable results that make the whole thing confusing.

In the case of LOMC, since the cartridges are an inherently balanced low impedance source, and should be loaded by a low resistance for best results, balanced is a sort of no-brainer. A great deal depends on the input of the phono section; if not differential forget it, and a great deal depends on the tone arm wiring- if the ground is independent of the signal wiring (which in most arms it is, the exception being straight-tracking air-bearing arms), then there are no worries.

Jimjoyce25, that's really a tough call. The problem is that you have to find a preamp that is single-ended, built to a certain built quality, and then have a differential preamp that is otherwise the same topology and build quality. There are no such products out there, so winnowing out the differences purely on if it is differential or not is nearly impossible.

So your plan B is to listen to the

best that balanced has to offer

and compare it to the best the single-ended has to offer.

Here are the actual (as opposed to theoretical) benefits of differential operation:
*up to 6 db less noise per stage of gain.
*distortion cancellation with each stage of gain.
*rejection of noise common to both inverting and non-inverting inputs
*superior rejection of power supply noise

Here are the disadvantages:
*50% more parts in circuit path
*requirement of a minus power supply
*less gain than single-ended

Here are the myths:
*signal path is more complex
fact: its the same with equal number of gain stages
*you need more gain stages
fact: not if you don't make as much noise- 2 stages of gain might be 12db less noise than SE
*equalization errors are magnified
fact: anyone who says that has not tried it :)
*'phase splitter argument' the idea that the signal gets messed up due to the differential amplifier splitting the phase. This comes from a fundamental misunderstanding of how differential amplifiers work.

I know you see it as some sort of marketing plan on my part but I simply practice what I preach. BAT was an early customer of ours before going into business for themselves, we influenced ARC, Sonic Frontiers and host of others as we were the first to have a balanced high end product which was the MP-1 preamp. The fact that it is balanced has been the single **biggest** marketing problem that we have had with it! So in a nutshell balanced differential has been out anti-marketing plan :) ... anyway in recent years balanced has finally caught on so the MP-1 has become one of the top contenders in that field, due in part to our experience and also we control a patent in the area as well.