XLR to SE RCA interconnect - HELP please

Different brands of eletronics have different pin outs/ins for XLR connectors. Be careful in that regard.

pin 1 ground, pin 2 non-inverting (hot), pin 3 inverting or 180 degrees....at least thats what my Krell book says is standard.

CARDAS audio sells adaptors, so does BAT

Dave

The standard designation is pin 1 to the shell of the RCA and pin 2 to the center tip of the RCA. Leave pin 3 open on digital based gear (your CDP).

On amplifier based gear, use a tiny piece of the same wire as your IC across pins 1 & 3. If you don't have the same wire, use something similar-don't just blob some solder across them.

You can also try leaving the pin open & if you get noise, then put the wire across pins 1 & 3.

Remember, this is the standard pin assignment & some manuf. are different. Sometimes manuf. say which pin in manual, some on gear, some you have to call, etc.

According to Victor at BAT it doesn't really matter, since 50% of recordings are recorded out of phase anyway. Does your preamp have a phase invert switch? If so, just use it in the position that sounds best for you.

FWIW, pin # 2 hot is the standard, however, not all manufacturers adhere to this standard. So you may want to check with your amplifier manufacturer as to their/your ampifier is wired.

You may also just want to look into buying a pair of these.

Driver, I suggest that you don't do this

On amplifier based gear, use a tiny piece of the same wire as your IC across pins 1 & 3.

Instead, use a 620 ohm resistor. It's low enough value to supress noise and high enough to not severely disrupt DC bias (in some cases) or AC (small signal) load balance of the input stage.

Thank you guys. I think I'll go with the 620 ohm resistor option.

DV

Serus-why do you suggest this? Please explain why. I've been doing this for yrs with good results. Pro audio companies make their cables like this, as do some home audio cable companies, especially if there's a shield involved.

Driver, I'm aware that many companies short the two pins and it may be acceptable in some cases - but not all.

Scenario#1: input stage is made of bipolar transistors in a balanced differential amplifier circuit. In this case, shorting the input actually changes the bias (DC) current through the transistor base. The circuit may seem like it's still "working", given that one half is still biased correctly, but that's not what the designer tried to do. It may in fact distort the input signal in this configuration.

Scenario#2: Input circuit is not DC-coupled but it is differential. In that case, shorting one input makes the circuit look into a zero impedance for the AC signal, not the Dc component. Some circuits may not operate optimaly under these condition, which are in fact an imbalance in what's supposed to be a fully-balanced circuit. This may have an effect on the distortion components at the output of the circuit, even though there is no signal at all at the shorted pin. The issue is that the balanced circuit "reflects" the signal to the negative side by virtue of modulating the voltage at the joint node.

I hope this gives some idea why shorting is not ideal. On the other hand, a low resistance would not have much of an effect on noise in the circuit and it would avoid the complete short. The ideal solution would balance the load on both ends for AC and DC, but that's a tweaker's solution, not a practical concept for incorporating into a cable...

If I may add:

The power amps is transformer coupled in the input stage. Thus the input is balanced differential but the actual amplification stage is single-ended...

The power amps is transformer coupled in the input stage

I'd still not short it. Transformer coupling actually reflects the load impedance for AC signals back to the input of the active circuit, so the argument of unbalanced AC operating conditions still applies.