Long run XLR cables

His point, I believe is that all the things that can be verified by bench testing are a known quantity and anything after that is subjective. He conceded that the ears and brain are far more sensitive than the test equipment and there can be differences beyond the measurement equipment but the quantifiable results are the baseline.

Thanks for all the good info! As far as differentially balanced equipment I'm not sure. I'll have to do some poking around and check my documentation. I'm working with a Lexicon MC-10 pre/pro and a 90's vintage Mac MC7200. As far as my experience with what I have now I thought the SVS soundpath cables were as step back from the Mogamis which were too short for my new routing. Adding a pair of new Rel subs so I bought them for those and thought I'd try them on the mains. No go! A lot of praise for the Mogamis so I might go with a longer pair Of those (maybe the platinums) for an upgrade if I can find them in the right length.

On a side note, I I play quite a bit of vinyl in two channel with the screen out of the way but the system is doing double duty as a multi channel system and the amp for that is all connected with XLR so I feel inclined to not use single ended for the mains for that reason. Both amps are supposedly fully balanced AB amps but I'm not that clear on the topography.

Thanks for that! I’ll take a look into those companies.

How is the best way to verify your preamp supports AES 48 aside from auditioning expensive cables?

Thanks for that Erik! It’s a McIntosh MC7200 and I believe it is. I’m getting a pair of Rel s510 sub and planning to connect them via high level inputs so I’ll need to verify for hookup anyway.

Thanks Erik, just off the phone with a very helpful guy at McIntosh who confirmed that. He also said anytime you have balanced connections they will outperform single ended no matter how much you spend according to results of bench testing. He also has a 7200.