Phono Stage with XLR outs

Does Boulder use the convention that pin2 of the XLR is the positive phase or hot  from an SE reference? Most do, but I have read that not every company does it that way. Like I said earlier, the Cardas adapters are of very high quality and based on my own use of them they do use Pin2 as hot, but "no adapter " is better.

Not to rain on Whest in any way, but from my reading Whest derives the balanced outputs by adding a device at the end of their otherwise SE circuit. (I don’t think it’s a transformer, but they are a bit mysterious on that subject.) I recall on my old Sony SACD player, the best one they made (SCD777?), they too used an add-on circuit to convert SE to XLR balanced out.  The SE outputs always sounded better to my ears.

after reading more of this thread, what I see is the OP is not satisfied with the sound of a $3K front end when his amp and speaker combo cost ten times as much. If you want the analog front end including a step up MC phono stage with balanced to meet your expectations, you'll need a higher budget or fairy dust. Garbage in=garbage out.

@cooperdude6 where do you get that idea bud? I’m trying to make it sound right. Which it does with the MP100. I know in most case it won’t match my digital front end. It’s not the objective and not the point. Sounding wrong and sounding not as good as my digital front end is two different things. You’re confused. 

@lewm not sure about boulder balanced in. But I think you nailed it with the adapters. No bueno. 
 

Whest is in. But I got some things to finish up around the house before I get to it. Initial impressions of this phono stage to follow…

@audphile1 

Listen to Whest and hopefully you like the way it sounds in your system. As I mentioned before, I can send you my RCA ➡️ XLR Purist Audio IC’s to try it out with Sutherland. In all seriousness, you need a phono with true balanced output to take advantage of Boulder balanced circuitry.  Perhaps a Boulder 508 down the road and you’re done!