Ayre Codex and Output Transformer

The Ayre sends everything truly balanced, but a lot of even so-called “balanced” amps take the signal and just convert it to single-ended internally to save on parts. It’s not the right way to do it and eliminates pretty much all of the advantages of having a balanced system in place.

this is a very appropriate and fair warning - newbies see a set of balanced jacks on a piece of gear and assume they have real balanced circuitry (for what that is worth) -- NOT true in many cases...

Thanks for all the responses.  Sorry I didn't reply - not getting notifications for some reason.  

This is what I received back from Ayre:

"Just use RCA in this case until you’re able to upgrade your amp to balanced. The Ayre sends everything truly balanced, but a lot of even so-called “balanced” amps take the signal and just convert it to single-ended internally to save on parts. It’s not the right way to do it and eliminates pretty much all of the advantages of having a balanced system in place. Adding any converters really just puts something else in the signal path and you’ll lose more than you could potentially gain."

@tvad, what is the benefit of the flying ground wire?

I have been using the Jensen Isomax units for years and they work well. Very transparent and wide bandwidth. However, before buying you should contact Jensen (or read the online manual for the product) to determine which unit would be best for your needs as they make several versions. Where you need to place the unit and cable lengths make a difference.

cardas makes those xlr ---> rca adapters that tvad mentions

You should contact Ayre before you try that. I believe the manual specifically says not to. At any rate you don't get the benefit of balanced connections if everything is not balanced.

https://www.jensen-transformers.com/product/pc-2xr/

Is this what you're considering? It will take a balanced input and will output a single-ended signal. The issue is that it will reduce the gain of the balanced signal to that of an unbalanced RCA. I think you're losing the benefit of the balanced signal.
I believe using your RCA unbalanced would offer the same result.
 

I have a Codex in my system and I used the RCA outputs with my Oppo disc player  the Codex is a much better DAC then the on board one used it four years that way
Back last April I upgraded my preamp and amp now using the XLRs
it's a great DAC

Enjoy the Music
Tom