XLR Interconnects

I am at the moment doing a comparison of XLRs between my DAC and preamp and amp. The amp is not the greatest but the headphone amp in the preamp is extremely revealing.

The components are Benchmark DAC3B + Benchmark HPA4 + Peachtree NOVA 150 integrated amp section (to be changed next month).

I spent $200 in total for new Benchmark StarQuad XLRs in 1/2 foot and 15 foot lengths. They are considered "professional" grade cables by Benchmark because they can carry a signal at 24 dBu+.

I am comparing them to the $1000+ "consumer" grade Audience AU24e XLR cables that I was using previously. They cannot carry a signal at 24 dBu+. They are 1/2 foot and 9 foot lengths.

Now after 50+ hours I am pleasantly surprised by the StarQuads. They seems to be approaching the beautiful sound of the Audience AU24e. At the end of the month I will do a head-to-head comparison and decide if there is much of a difference.

The Benchmark gear can use the 24 dBu+ signal ability of the StarQuad’s I am not sure if all electronics supporting XLR can take advantage of this. I was curious to see if Benchmarks claims about the best cables to use with their gear are something I would agree with.

https://benchmarkmedia.com/blogs/application_notes/balanced-vs-unbalanced-analog-interfaces

I'm using XLR cables but only for analogue signals in fully balanced mode.   I've compared many brands, but they all seem pretty much the same....little difference if any at all.

I used solid silver, shielded DIY XLR's and have never looked back. :)

The only issues I've run into is that the solid silver, single strand is more brittle than average.

@yyzsantabarbara My Benchmark AHB2 power amp also supports professional level inputs. It allow choice of 3 gains 8.2dBu, 14,2dBu and 22dBu. The idea behind high level (22dBu) is to reduce gain of power amp. It provides twofold benefit - shifts gain into quieter environment (preamp) and makes cables more immune to noise (higher signal levels). I remember that long time ago the opposite was popular - low level inputs -10dBV = 0.316V. It seemed to be a good idea, since it saved money (gain in the amp only instead of gain in all connected equipment), but it eventually failed and today normal non-pro line level in US is 4dBu=1.23V. Benchmark recommends highest level settings and use of XLR only. They believe that with RCA you cannot get much higher than 16 bit. Benchmark AHB2 amp doesn’t even have unbalanced inputs, so I’m forced to use XLR. I bought the shortest (0.5m) high quality XLRs (Acoustic Zen Absolute). Perhaps it is an overkill to buy such pricey ICs for my modest system, but it is non-perishable item, that will stay with me forever.

I am not technically inclined on these details so I am just going on recommendations and verifying for myself.

Another recommendation made by a component designer on these forums, @atmasphere, was to look for components that support the AES48 XLR standard to reduce the effects of XLR cables on sound. That is any decent XLR would do. The Benchmarks do support this standard (I asked them)

Most important is to have all components DIFFERENTIALLY/TRUE BALANCED. If not, it's a crap shoot.


Lots of manufacturers offer XLR I/Os but the component itself is NOT TRUE BALANCED

Thanks for the reminder as to true balanced as opposed to simply having XLR inputs.. I didn't know about that back when first using balanced cable. At that time I had a pretty long run and audio shop so advised. Here in these forums I have learned that it's not so simple.In fact, I doubt that my current Parasound brute is true balanced.