Balanced XLRs to cable RCAs

an update to a question I posted last January about rcas to xlrs comparison.
after trying his MA1 RCA cables from my SunfireTGP III preamp to Arcam dv135,
I replaced the old xlrs with Mike Morrows MA1 XLRS,

and ALL IS WELL,
the harsh is gone, smooth, lush?
an almost unbelievable difference.

only 2 days, not close to "broken in" yet,
but Im not sure how they could sound any better.

thanks to all,
rms

both the pre and the amp are sunfire, so i'd be amazed if the pins were in different orders.

i have the sunfire cinema grand II and the sunfire tgp5 and they sound noticeably better to my ears with xlrs (when fed from other preamps as well).

i also bought some monoprice interconnects out of curiosity when i was ordering some other stuff from them and in my opinion, they will be the weak link in that equation. they're great for what they are - well-priced no nonsense cables, but their sound quality isn't what i would consider top notch. for an extreme example, i bought a 15 foot pair of interconnects to see if could keep a non-remote tuner on my desk (away from my rig) and the sound was so bad when it reached my preamp that i couldn't use them - even for sports or npr.

if i remember correctly, my impression of the knuconceptz stuff was that it was probably better made (but that was just from reading their webpages). and in my system, the monoprice rca connecters were better than the xlr ones, so that seems like it might contribute to the sound.

that being said, i'm sure a shorter pair would sound ok after burning in like crazy (months or years), but they'll never give you 100% of your gear in my opinion. and i never spent the time to burn mine in.

bottom line, though, is burn the he11 out of them and then see. if they still don't sound as good, you could pick up a pair of xlrs from one of our audiogon auction sellers (for as low as $20 and up), all of which would be a noticeable upgrade, i THINK.

cheers

cables not from same company, Monoprice XLRs are 16 g copper, both gold platted, Knukonceptz RCAs appear better made, will try breakin.

Thanks all

rms

If pins are same from amp & pre, then cable should be fine, as they should not be sold as inverting unless requested. You can check continuity just to make sure there are no shorts.

What I meant by same materials is are they the same manuf? Silver vs. copper, plated vs. not, etc. will all yield different sound.

More than likely, some break-in required re: Sid42

Listen for a week (or 2) then put the RCA back in & compare notes.

Driver-

no balanced switch on amp

cables are same 3 ft length, XLR from monoprice?, not expensive, but well reviewed by users, 100%
first XLRS Ive tried.

the RCAs seem same heavy duty, quality gold plated const., better than others inc. monster.

AMP, PRE, pin config is 1 grnd, 2 hot, 3 neg., not sure what cable config is? are some different, how would you tell this?

thanks,
rms

Does your amp have a balanced/unbalanced switch?

Is the pin configuration correct & do both cables match?

Is there any difference in the materials between the RCA & XLR?

Maybe you need to let these new cables break in. Signal Cable recommends at least 70 hours of break in time, and I can confirm that after this amount of time, they did sound much better.