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  3. 177575-96

XLR Female to RCA Plug Adapter

Looking for direct experience and/or a technical explanation on using an XLR Female to a male RCA Plug Adapter, if it’s a good idea or not, and what adapters are most transparent and do the least damage to the signal.

According to the manufacturer of my DAC, using its balanced output is much preferred to using RCA. My pre only has single-ended inputs, so if I used a good adapter plug would it negate all the benefits of using the DAC’s XLR out or, put another way, would I just be better off using an RCA interconnect and forgo the adapter? Thanks for any thoughts.

soix

Showing 1 response by carlsbad

carlsbad's avatar
carlsbad
1,551 posts
 

It is an easy thing to do. It won’t be a balanced connection. The RCA does not support the return wire (pin 3 of xlr). It must be left lifted at the RCA end.

I have jensen transformers on one of my amps. they are fully balanced.  the box in the link above appears to be an adapter box that can be just as easily done with a cable.  Maybe they do something else inside that box but I can't tell by looking at it.

I built a pair of RCA to XLR connectors to run my HT bypass from the RCA out of my HT preamp to the XLR inlet of my amp.

Jerry

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