XLR and DBS (Audioquest)

DBS is an absolute must on the AudioQuest cable line, irrespective of how you have the cable terminated. The effect of engaging the DBS is quite obvious however you will only notice this if you switch it off (i.e. unplug the small DBS jack) as it can take 48-72 hours for the field to fully form. Without the DBS my AQ WEL cables sound rather edgy and thin, with the DBS working fully there is palpable solidity to the image and uniformity across the frequency range. I own both RCA and XLR terminated WEL -- which of the two is better will depend on the equipment used (I just discovered that the balanced outputs on my DCS stack actually sound worse than the single ended so am switching to RCA in that application). Finally AQ will reterminate any of their cables (at cost) should your needs ever change

Maybe it would be helpful to pass along my experience on the question of XLR vs RCA. Firstly if you have a long (say >3M) run then you have no alternative but XLR, as RCA will be too probe to pick up noise. Having said that a poor implementation of balanced circuitry (on which Ralph has expounded at length) will sound worse than any single ended. Be aware that many (if not most) so called balanced circuits are simply front or back ends to single ended circuitry inside the amp or component. Hence my recent experience with my DCS kit actually sounding better single ended, most likely as the balanced connection is going through another step to convert single ended to balanced

However in balanced cables favor the XLR connection technology is way better than RCA, no risk of loose connections or bad grounds -- which even led to me losing a woofer in a pair of Magico V3s once

So what does this boil down to? My rule of thumb logic tree

1) Is your connection >3M then, go balanced
2) Is your equipment (at both ends) true balanced circuitry, then go balanced
3) If 1 and 2 are false then go single ended
4) If 1 is true and 2 is false then move your equipment!

Not too complicated in the end 🤔