XLR waste of time ?

You may also want to consider whether you can find XLR connectors that are as good as the best RCAs.

Atmasphere: "No worries there"? Really.

What XLRs do you think are so good?

Let me rephrase the question: What XLR connectors do you (or anyone) view as equal to or better than an Eichmann silver RCA?

It sounds as if the conclusions being voiced here are based more on philosophical creed, rather than on experimentation----at least not recent experimentation.

Since either type of connector can be used on either type of cable, the comparison should be pretty straightforward.

I've done the direct comparison of Eichmann silver vs copper RCAs. and in a good enough system, the superiority of the silver is quite clear.

I'd be interested in knowing if anyone has done a similarly direct comparison between the Eichmann silvers and high-quality XLR connectors.

Does anyone know of a manufacturer that makes XLRs with pure silver pins?

Based on their low price, it doesn't look like the Neutrik silvers are made this way. (Unlike the Eichmann silver RCAs, which are pure silver, with a price that reflects this.)

So, your view is that a properly designed balanced cable geometry is inherently better than any single-ended cable geometry, no matter what the design?

Sounds like more philosophy to me, unconfirmed and untested by experience.

Do you have a dealer in the San Francisco area who carries your equipment and has it set up with properly designed cables? At some point I'd be interested in doing a direct comparison with the very very simple single-ended design I have.

nrenter---My thought was to do the comparison between the preamp outputs and the amplifiers in the system. Obviously it couldn't be done in a simple and direct way on the front end. As it happens atmasphere's preamp has only XLR outputs. I don't suppose using the RCA tape outputs would make for an appropriate comparison?

But let's suppose, as you suggest, that an appropriate comparison can't be done. Doesn't the position that balanced lines and XLRs are better just remain, as I suggest, an article of faith?

shadorne: There are all sorts of reasons to use balanced lines in a pro audio setting: Long cable distances, greater potential for signal pollution, etc. None of which exists in the typical home audio set-up. Which suggests that experimentation, rather than philosophy, could be a better way to answer the question.

From a rhetorical perspective, the dismissive attitude of so many of the posters here is remarkably similar to religious belief, or to beliefs about global climate change. It's an interesting question to try to figure out the psychological causes of such beliefs, but the beliefs themselves are merely that.

Gentlemen: There's much that I don't know about electronics, and I appreciate the information you provide.

But perhaps one benefit of my situation is that I'm able to approach the listening experience with a bit less prejudice than some of you. And IME the various preferences expressed in this forum (tubes vs solid state, analogue vs digital) are often based on the limited experience of a set of listeners, and they don't hold up in the listening room.

Nothing I've read so far persuades me that there is anything inherently superior about differential vs non-differential technologies. It still sounds like philosophy, or, in the case of atmasphere, philosophy plus a marketing plan.

It's also quite clear, in general, and despite the various prejudices, that there is no direct correlation between electronics theory and the best sound: There's still so much that has yet to be discovered about how to reproduce sound, so much that is not understood about how the technology results in the listening experience. Anyone who suggests otherwise is a fool, or trying to fool someone else.

For every one of you with an EE degree, there is someone else with an EE degree who believes something different. Fortunately, none of that matters.

What I am in search of is a way to make a useful, practical, listening comparison between the two technologies, differential and non-differential.

Yes, I understand that this is perhaps not possible on a component by component basis, but surely someone can suggest an appropriate way to listen to the best that balanced has to offer, so I can come to the only judgment that matters.