Preamps with balanced ins/outs and remote

In regard to the different sound of cables I think much of this has to do with their construction and material.

With regard to balanced operation, the statement is mostly false. However it is widely believed by many in high end audio. "Mostly" as in: as long as the cable has an adequate shield with a twisted pair within for the signal, then other construction details and materials will be rendered moot.

However as I mentioned before if the standards of the balanced line system are *not* observed then the above-quoted statement is true.

With respect to cables, yes, its possible. A lot depends on the design of the transformers. If they are designed to be loaded with the relatively high input impedances that are common in amplifiers today, you will retain the Common Mode Rejection numbers but otherwise the construction of the cable will have a big difference on the sound.

The balanced line system is designed to eliminate cable artifacts! So some output transformers are designed to drive a low impedance (600 ohms being the standard). If the transformer is driving this impedance you insure that the cable is not influencing the sound at all.

One reason for going with balanced operation is the effect that this has on the interconnects used, rather than just the fact that the amp might have a balanced input.

There is a standard for balanced operation that has been around for decades. It is there so that you can reliably and repeatably set up a system, with expectation for good results, regardless of the length or cost of the cables used.

IOW if the standard is used, the cables in the system cease to have significant effect on the sound of the system.

Here is the standard:
1) Pin 1 is ground. (pin 2 in the US is non-inverting, in Europe it is inverting)
2) The signal shall occur between pin 2 and pin 3 of the XLR. Ground is ignored!
3) The output impedance of the source shall be low enough that driving a low impedance can be done without change in frequency response or distortion. 'Low impedance' is typically less than 2Kohms.

If any of these rules are ignored (which is common-place in high end audio) the result is that the cable will express some artifact, and the length will be a problem. A common myth is that there is no advantage to short balanced runs; the truth is that balanced operation is lower noise even if the cable is only 6 inches long.

The take-away here is that if you can hear a difference with the cables in your system there is a problem. Its very likely that of two cables being compared, one might sound better than the other; the simple fact is that neither is entirely correct. It is the balanced standard that allowed the record labels to do the job that they did back in the late 50s (often known as the Golden Age of Stereo), when exotic high-buck cables did not exist.

The funny thing is that to drive the cable correctly such that its artifact is controlled and prevented is not difficult nor more expensive! The main thing seems to be education on the part of designers who very much seem to me to simply not know about the standard.

This is why I put up my prior post. Of all the preamps mentioned, how many can drive a 2000 ohm load without loss of bass or an audible increase in distortion or overall loss of volume? Its true that many amps have a high input impedance where this might seem to not come into play, but like I said earlier, if you ignore the standard then welcome to audible differences between cables, something the balanced line system is supposed to prevent. I am indeed saying that you need the low output impedance even if you are not driving a low impedance load.

Seadogs1, if the preamp is internally balanced, you should be able to get an output from the preamp by driving pin 2 and pin 1, and also by driving *pin 3* and pin 1 (pin 1 being ground). If it is unresponsive on one of those inputs, say pin 3 for example, then the preamp has the connector for convenience only.

The exception would be if the preamp employs and input transformer, but such use is rare in high end audio, although it would not surprise me in the least to see some products that use them. As a result, if in doubt check with the manufacturer.