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RCA to XLR adapters…

I apologize if this has been covered before – I did a couple of searches in the archives, but I didn’t find it. I recently acquired a balanced preamp (Audio Research) and, of course, my CDP (Rotel) is single-ended only. I currently have a pair of typical Chinese-made adapters, which I purchased locally. Since I am at least 10 months away from a CDP upgrade, I am thinking that it would be worthwhile to invest in a pair of better quality adapters. Therefore, I am looking for a pair ‘audiophile’ RCA (female) to XLR (male) adapters.

Thus far, the only ones that I have found are the items on the Cardas website. I was wondering if anyone knew of any other quality adapters that I might consider before making a purchase.

My other option would be to have someone like Signal Cable make me a custom RCA to XLR cable. Naturally, such a cable would have little resale value. In addition, it might be a step backwards when compared to my current Tara Labs RSC Air 3.

What do you think? Any suggestions would be appreciated.
ekistler_sj
eldartford
4,262 posts
 
I second the recommendation for A2Zcables.com.
albertporter's avatar
Ag insider logo xs@2x
albertporter
4,949 posts
 
I did not price all the cables at A2Z cables.com, but the 12 foot component video (Belden) they advertise at $95.00 is available at Blue Jeans cable for $60.00.

So if your building a specialty cable that may not have great resale, I suggest paying as little as possible, especially when they are identical materials and terminations.

To answer the original question, Purist Audio builds an RCA (female) to XLR (male) adapter, and it sells for about $100.00 with a discount. This is a valid option if you already own an expensive cable and don't want to pay to have it re terminated and /or wish to retain the XLR configuration (using converter only when needed).
ekistler_sj OP
60 posts
 
Thanks for all of your responses.

After additional consideration, I am even more convinced that I don’t want to purchase a specially made cable for this application – I am quite satisfied with my Tara Labs cable. I think that I will get better bang for my buck just buying a high-quality XLR adapter and staying with my current RCA cable.

I will check out the adapters from Cardas, ARC, and Purist Audio, for sure. If anyone knows of any other audiophile-quality XLR to RCA adapters, please post them here.

Thanks again!
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