When I lived on a substantial hill just outside Nashville, TN, there was so much RF in the air I could pick up radio stations through my cart and tube phono pre- that I had to eliminate any single ended cable and commit to all balanced cable for short runs of 1 to 2 meters. The result was no RF interference. I now live in the upper Midwest with great power sourced locally. RF and other airborne interference is limited here. All of my equipment is true balanced with a balanced run from pre-amp to mono block amps of 3 meters. Absolute silent noise floor. I attribute that to conscientious cable routing and balanced ICs.
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The best way to solve this, IMO, is to do what I did, which is buy the same exact cables, one set with balanced XLR and the other set with RCA (WBT RCA in my case) and test them back and forth in your system in your room with your ears. When I did this for a few months I actually found that I preferred the RCA. You may find the opposite, and unless someone else is paying for your system, your opinion is the only one that is right for you. That said, my cable runs are very short (<1 meter) so it may not make a difference for me. "They" say if you have long runs it makes a difference, but I have not heard it in my own system. Upgraded and different brands I have tried do sound different and some are better than others ( I currently use Kimber Kable base series), but with the same cables, XLR versus RCA have not made a difference for me with my short runs. |
Nice answer @l1975r however the question that the OP asked was about expensive versus cheaper XLRs. It is dumb enough to suggest that the OP buy expensive XLRs, when they will not likely hear any difference, but adding in an expensive set of RCAs which the OP does not need, is certainly going a bit far (IMO). |
- 55 posts total