SQ difference XLR vs RCA ?

My question is this:  if I have a quiet system with short runs, do balanced connections sound better?

They should not sound worse.

As the noise increases, and the runs get longer, the balanced stays better for longer.

Basically:

• If it sounds good now, then do not change it.
• If you are looking at an equipment change, which is more immune to noise, then balanced helps.

Based on my experience XLR has always sounded better. I can’t think of a single time when I used XLR’s that I wish I had used RCA.

I am sure we could find some other piece of gear that would not sound better.

Balance components are basically designed to have one side mirror the other side with respect to the electronics inside the chassis. When manufactures do this they tend a cheap out because they have to do two systems. So if you get a RCA only device there’s no mirroring of the internals so the belief is that more money spent on the electronics you’re buying. Conrad Johnson is a perfect example, they only do RCA connections

What does Conrad Johnson have to do with anything?
50-75 years ago, no one was using XLR to my knowledge… Maybe NASA, and maybe Pro Audio were??

The use of XLR for pro audio brought better CMRR and lower noise.
It also brought higher signal levels, which helps too… as that also allows lower amplifier gain, which also helps from a noise perspective.

Well, on my big Mac amp the extra gain of the XLR circuit raised my idle hiss to an audible level. I had to pad that down to remove the hiss. So in my experience XLRs can work in some installations and not work so well in others.

Usually the XLR side, on amplifiers, has a gain around 20 and the RCA side around 26dB.

And the on the preamp side the XLRs are 6dB hotter coming out.

Which makes this an outlier.

Did it hiss even with the XPRs unplugged or the preamp turned off?

All my equipment is balanced (Audio Research Reference) and Audio Research recommends using balanced. I have tried both. I was unable to hear a substantial difference. Since, more and more manufacturers are headed that way (I think), I went ahead and switched over all my interconnects. More as a just in case thing.

If my system was not in what I consider it’s apex state, I would not have changed over. I would have applied the money to improving components. There may be other components more sensitive to the interconnect used. I am sure Audio Research put a lot of effort into converting the signal …

Well put @ghdprentice - especially the “improving components” part.

If the context of the thread; we were smart we would make a list of the source and receiving component and whether it makes a difference.

• Gear with both RCA and Balanced maybe have different sounding paths
• Some gear may look balanced, but not be truely balanced.
• etc