Inter Connects - What I know and don't know

@atmasphere Thank you sir. Nice to know I can put my money towards a preamp rather than cables (at this point in the journey). 

I've heard you say previously (on a different post) that one quick and dirty way to tell if your preamp supports the AES48 standard is to see if there's a toggle switch between RCA and XLR. 

The Pontus claims it's a "true balanced DAC" but does not provide such a switch. And the "RCA and XLR outputs are shared". Does this mean the Pontus is *not* AES48 compliant? There's no mention of this standard on their output section in their product literature.  

"The Balanced output via XLR (pin2 hot), singled ended output via RCA. The PONTUS is a true balanced DAC, we recommend using balanced output whenever possible. The RCA and XLR output are shared, please use either of the output at a time. It is not recommended to use both RCA and XLR output simultaneously."

There's an easy way to know. If you run it single-ended into our amps and it plays at a certain volume, does it play louder when running balanced?

If yes= does not support the standard

if no, volume is the same = supports the standard.

This is because the balanced standard ignores ground- the output signal is generated with respect to its opposite rather than being generated with respect to ground. If its generated with respect to ground, its really just two single-ended outputs, one of which is out of phase with the other. While that is balanced, it doesn't support the standard.

If paying more means better sound, a good many manufacturers would be happy to upgrade your $60 cables by charging $300 for the same thing.  Dielectric materials and metallurgy have more impact than gauge.

@knotscott  Thank you, that was so very very helpful of you. it's nice to know there are people here who you can depend on when seeking advice. 

- You don’t always get what you pay for. I know $200 dollar cables from one brand that sound better than $600 cables from another.

- MSRP doesn’t really mean anything in relationship to sound quality escpecially across different brands.

- Once you’ve actually establish a brand you like the sound of, then going up in budget then mostly gets you what you pay for. Point of diminishing return happens when your cables cost way more than your components. This isn't technically a bad thing though as your ceiling is higher if you plan to upgrade.

- Large gauge wire isn’t a hard fast rule, just because a wire is thicker doesn’t mean it sounds better or is more detailed than a thinner wire. It’s all about the cable design. I tend to like thinner cables.

- Faci is that silver conductors are better conductor. It’s a matter of personal preference if they sound better because of it. For sure, they are more expensive because the marketing dictates it, but I tend to like OCC high purity copper over silver. when it comes down to it, conductor material is only important if that’s what you’re focused on.

- Only way to know is to listen for yourself across different brands. People, myself included, can wax poetic about their cable of choice because that’s the sound or brand they like.

- I tend not to trust brands that have a too many levels of products. For example, If you have 4 upgrade levels going from 50 to 300 dollars, then another 4 levels that go into the high end there’s obviously some marketing head games going on.