Balanced xlr or rca for Ayre C5xe

Mcrheist,
I agree with you that everything I have heard, balanced should be better. I am pretty sure I had everything set up properly, even making sure that on the Ayre V-3 the RCA connections phase was inverted (per Ayre's instructions). I found it perplexing. The balanced had more pronounced and dynamic frequency extremes, but the RCA was more musical. My brother was in on the listening session and agreed with me on the sound.
I have since moved on to tubes and different interconnects, but I have to say would not go out of my way to get an all balanced system based on my experience.
Actually, I thought the AQ stuff was pretty good with the Ayre, although I understand that Ayre and Cardas are very synergistic, although one should order the Cardas without the ferrite beads, since Ayre stuff already has high frequency filters (Ayre conditioner).

I doubt the AQ cables were the problem. I have tried the Cardas GR and GC from start to finish and they took my Ayre system back two steps. (golden cross worse than GR) I use all AQ and the system has come back to life. I will however agree that running my system with SE cables while waiting for the Cardas to go away and the AQ to get here the system lacked in dynamics compared to the XLR outputs. Just didnt have the same rich, smooth, detailed, and powerful sound I'm getting now that I am back to balanced from one end to the other.

I definitely prefer the XLR output vs the RCA output on my C-5xe. When making the comparison, it is very important that both outputs have been properly burned in. I've had my Ayre 3/4 of a year now and it just keeps sounding better and better.

calgarian