Do long interconnects degrade sound?

Albertporter...Do you really think 600 ohms is a low output impedance? 600 was typical of tube preamps (12AU7 cathode follower) but I have heard that some modern tube units are down to 200 ohms or less. Solid state typically runs 50 ohms or less.

I belong to the "long interconnect, short speaker cable" school of thought.

I have experience with long interconnects 75+ feet.

RCA type have a tendency to pick up more hum or ambient electrical noise which is apparent when you have the volume turned up and no music playing....hiss or hum.

XLR driven by balanced amplifier cables are far superior for this problem of ambient noise because of the shielding and less grounding issues ( which can set up small current loops).

In either case it is just the hiss that will be a problem and the sound is not degraded,

I would add that the music sound is most unlikely to differ audibly between the RCA and the balanced XLR cables....it is just the background hum or hiss that may improve (from ambient electrical noise from appliances power and AC's etc.)....so my advice is to try RCA first and see if it works for you and your home conditions before going to XLR.

One other point...watch out if you play loud music ....having a preamp far away may lead you t oover power speakers without knowing,

Good luck!

Eldartford, probably should have said

600 ohms or less

As for the Krell, here are the specifications for its RCA outputs. No balanced outputs on this model, but who cares with that low an impedance?

Sidebar 1: Specifications

Description: Solid-state, remote-controlled, stereo integrated amplifier with 5 line-level inputs
1 balanced, 3 single-ended
1 single-ended tape loop
1 set of single-ended preamplifier outputs.
Power output: 200Wpc into 8 ohms (23dBW)
*Output impedance: 0.17 ohm*

Even inexpensive cables, such as sold by The BlueJeans Cable Company ($83.00 for 50 Ft. RCA) is only 17 picofarads of capacitance per foot.

The point is, it's what this gentleman needs to keep peace in his home. I have a pair of 60 foot BlueJeans RCA cables in my HT system and it's OK for that use.

Albert...0.17 ohms for a line level output!! Are you sure?
That sounds like the power amp.