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Balanced vs RCA Interconnects

I had the opportunity today to compare some interconnects while trying ( and failing ) to accomplish
a very different task. I hooked up a pair of Nordost Red
Dawn RCA int. at the same time as a pair of Homegrown audio Silver Super int. BAL and heard no difference when switching back and forth, other than the short silent period for the switch to go through. Equipment is ML383 Int. Amp, Cary CD303 and B&W Nautilus 805 speakers. The sound is excellent with both. I don't know what I expected, but I guess i expected something different...other than just price.
Any comments would be appreciated.
snooker14

Showing 1 response by njonker

njonker
107 posts
 
I have had mixed results in this arena, depending on the equipment in question. From my Mark Levinson 380 to Mark Levinson 335, balanced sounds best, hands down, no questions asked.


From my Sony SCD-1 to the ML 380, SE used to sound better than balanced, that is, a $15 pair of AudioQuest cables used to sound better to me than a $500 pair of Madrigal CZ-Gel... And then I got new speakers that are a little warmer and more coherent, and now the Balanced cables, to me, sound better hands down.


This is doubly odd as the SCD-1 was designed to be single-ended, and the balanced signal is generated artificially...

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