Balanced vs RCA preamps

atmasphere

... I’ve seen some (shall we say) sophomoric ’balanced’ products offered in high end audio that had almost no CMRR at all ...

That's not surprising - there's quite a bit of mediocre audio equipment on the market. But to argue that balanced components that do not observe the AES spec are somehow "improper" is misguided. They can still offer potential advantages over single-ended components, including improved CMRR.

... you’ll hear cable differences, the system will be subject to ground loop possibility and you won’t be able to drive long cables ...

I'm not having those problems with my mostly ARC system, which is not AES compliant.

As an aside, I'd wager there are balanced, AES compliant components on the market that are easily bettered by some single-ended gear. As is often the case, the implementation is as critical as the topology or technology.

Balanced is only good if you prefer less noise.

A word of caution. Just because there’s an XLR connection does not mean it is a truly balanced circuit. I’ve seen many implementations where it’s actually a single ended circuit transmitted via XLR connectors. 

@rwwear — is that sarcasm? 

@atmasphere Had to look up supporting AES48 and found this. Thank you! Go to the head of the class. Heck, you could teach it! I don’t know if the RCA or XLR’s outputs support AES48 in the Raven Pre? I don’t think Don Sachas/Lynn Olson who designed the Raven preamp hang around on Agon so I don’t think a comment will be forthcoming. 

While I absolutely appreciate it; the advanced technology of audio isn’t something I ever wished to delve into. I just want to bliss out. 

@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.