TD, I don't know about the Cardas adapters, but the RCA-female to XLR-male adapters that I have seen connect the ground sleeve of the RCA connector to XLR pin 3, and to XLR pin 1, and to the XLR shell. If the adapter you were using was similar, it would mean that one end of the cartridge coils would have been connected through the adapter to both the circuit ground and the chassis ground of the Ayre phono stage. That would certainly figure to have adverse sonic consequences, in part because it would amount to putting an unbalanced signal into the Ayre's balanced signal path. But as I see it those consequences have no relevance to adapting an XLR output to an RCA input, as the OP is considering doing.
Perhaps some of the negative experiences with adapters that were cited by the others had similar causes?
Regards,
-- Al
Perhaps some of the negative experiences with adapters that were cited by the others had similar causes?
Regards,
-- Al