I own the Arik Audio Motherload XL. Balanced following the AES48 standard, also with RCA. It is a well made, beautifully sounding pre-amp. And dead quiet. I have two amps, the Atmasphere Class D (a beautiful pairing) as well as a Radu Tarta SET 45 amp. These also sound wonderful together, but a SET does not have XLR inputs (AES48 standard). My understanding is, by definition, single-ended-triode (SET) operation involves amplifying the entire signal with only one output device. A balanced circuit cannot be built this way. But I may be incorrect.
Balanced vs RCA preamps
How important is it that your Pre-amp has both balanced and RCA capabilities? I’m shopping for another pre, most likely tube, and it seems to make sense with any future component that it offers both XLR and RCA. And to further complicate the search finding both these features plus remote limits the offerings for both tube and SS particularly tube.
Showing 3 responses by dseltz
@inagroove noted:"With that said, both boxes have single-ended connections as well to appeal to a broader marked. Why? Many sources are single-ended (ex. my Zest phono-pre is single ended output only, so the cable going into the ARC line-pre must be single ended)." Another reason for RCA and fully balanced XLR outputs might be for subwoofers. If the two sets of output jacks (XLR and RCA, respectively) are in parallel- meaning they both output the same audio signal, they can be used for connection to multiple amplifiers or an amplifier and a pair of mono subwoofers. My XLR outputs can connect to my amps XLR inputs and RCS outputs to my pair of subs.
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