Rega HAL + EXON manual?

Why REGA chose to take perfectly standardized XLR cables and twist them that way, instead of using standard RCA plugs and cables I don't know. Perhaps they saw this as an opportunity to sell their own "proprietary" cables? ;-)

their explanation to me was that XLR connectors offer superior contact vs RCA. If not connecting to mono-blocks it had another advantage of only needing one XLR cable, since the connector on the Hal side has both R and L signals present, assuming this was also the case on the amp side. I suspect they realized they out-finessed themselves on this idea shortly after introducing it, as they never did it again as far as I know . . .

glad to hear you got it solved. I imagine the combination sounds really nice.

Solved it! If you want to use a standard XLR cables you can do that. The only thing you have to do is opening one of the XLR plugs - only on one cable, and switch the cores between pin 2 and pin 3.

If you want to make you own cables, you only need a standard RCA cable with 2 cores and 4 standard XLR plugs (2 male, and 2 female).

At the HAL end you connect the cores to pin 1 (gnd.) and 2 (right) at one cable, and pin 1 (gnd.) and 3 (left) on what becomes the left cable. At the EXON end of the cables you connect the cores to pin 1 and 2 on BOTH cables! as the EXONS only used pin 1 and 2...

Why REGA chose to take perfectly standardized XLR cables and twist them that way, instead of using standard RCA plugs and cables I don't know. Perhaps they saw this as an opportunity to sell their own "proprietary" cables? ;-)

The only benefit I see, is that you can Quad-amp and connect a subwoofer to the HAL, because it actually has both right and left channel in both outputs.

hmm . . . I'm not familiar with how the Exon amps connect to the Hal. Doesn't the Exon have an XLR input?

I drove a standard unbalanced amp with my Hal by using a standard XLR cable, with a pig-tail that I made to attach to it splitting it into 2 RCA outputs R and L.

Thanks, my problem is though, that I have purchased the HAL and the EXONS (version 1) as used items - in mint condition however, add the guy has provided me with standard XLR cables. The result is that they are playing in Mono! ;-)

I can see from you other post that the HAL is sending a stereo signal from both XLR outputs on the HAL - not a balanced signal (very clever)

My question is how I re-solder a set of standard XLR cables. I guess I have to switch pin 2 and 3 on one of the cables (and that PIN 3 is not used at all when connecting to the EXON?). Has anybody tried this? I'm not to keen on "blowing up" the power amp because I make a short circuit ...

Hal's are pretty rare, though I think they're a great preamp. I sent you an email regarding info I received from Rega. I sold my Hal and the manual went with it. The buyer was an Agon member so maybe he'll see this and help you by sending you a scan. Below is a URL for their Exon 3 page. If you have the Hal, your is probably the Exon 1. You should contact their service department, they may be able to email the pdf for the Hal and Exon 1.
http://www.rega.co.uk/html/exon.htm