Balanced vs. Single Ended Interconnects
From your experience, would you expect a higher quality single ended interconnect or an entry level balanced interconnect to sound better when connecting two balanced components?
More specifically, I will be connecting a Denafrips Ares ii to a Pathos Classic One Mkiii and I currently have Audioquest Sydney RCA interconnects. Is it worth getting some cheap Monoprice XLR cables or should I just wait until I can justify purchasing something from Audioquest (probably Red River or Belden BAV) in the future.
- robot
I'm not sure whether the Pathos Classic One is fully balanced or not. In the video, Kevin says it has a "fully balanced front end." That sounds to me like the amplifier itself is not a differential design, @jerryg123. But, with that front end, I can see that there could be advantages to using a balanced cable. |
Though I may be mistaken, it looks to me that your Pathos Classic One Mkiii is not truly balanced. That is, it does not use differential circuitry; the balanced inputs are either transformer-coupled, or simply single-ended inputs on XLR connectors. If that's the case, you're not likely to get much (if any) benefit from using a balanced cable. |
