One reason why many prefer rca is that there are many more quality cables available. That is a very nice amp and you will benefit from a pair of high quality interconnects. there is absolutely no reason to go balanced on a short run.
Jerry
Balanced vs. Single Ended Interconnects
From your experience, would you expect a higher quality single ended interconnect or an entry level balanced interconnect to sound better when connecting two balanced components?
More specifically, I will be connecting a Denafrips Ares ii to a Pathos Classic One Mkiii and I currently have Audioquest Sydney RCA interconnects. Is it worth getting some cheap Monoprice XLR cables or should I just wait until I can justify purchasing something from Audioquest (probably Red River or Belden BAV) in the future.
- robot
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- 56 posts total
@mceljo You’ve invested in good components so wait and get good XLR interconnects. The cheap Monoprice cables are only good to keep around for when you’re upgrading and are in between cables and don’t want to be left without music. And even then, for this purpose I’d resort to something like BlueJeans or Mogami, not Monoprice. |
The quality of the cable is of first priority in each case where I have compared. I think it unlikely budget XLR will unlikely ever best high quality RCA. But the difference is strongly component dependent. I currently have all Audio Research Reference gear. Audio Research recommends XLR. I have tried both… there was no obvious difference. Since I was upgrading, I went ahead and swapped my RCA out for XLR. But, I did it mostly just to be sure. Less expensive RCA cables made a big difference… in a bad way. I found mostly it was about the cable quality. |
- 56 posts total