I have a question about connecting XLR cables

[Chris Anderson]

I would like to connect amplifier and CD player using only XLR balanced cable for audio stereo music
Question is ---- amp and cd player will work connected that way or meaby XLR cables are designed to connect str away in to speakers from amp???

 

[lovinthehd]

Start with the specific makes/models of your gear involved and perhaps how all connected to start....

 

[Chris Anderson]

Yamaha RX-A6A amp Yamaha CD-S2100 cd player I want use XLR connection for audio nothing else that will work or not?

 

[mono-bloc]

amp and cd player will work connected that way or meaby XLR cables are designed to connect str away in to speakers from amp???

That's fine if the Amp and CD player has XLR sockets. CD players with XLR connections are few and far between
I've just seen your reply, Really there will be little or no advantage in using XLR cables as apposed to RCA, with low end gear

 

[Chris Anderson]

I don't think my gear is low end especially where CD with this connection are rare also RCA or optical is the worst option to connect CD compare to coaxial or XLR looks like you don't have the knowledge

 

[highfigh]

I don't think my gear is low end especially where CD with this connection are rare also RCA or optical is the worst option to connect CD compare to coaxial or XLR looks like you don't have the knowledge

How is optical one of the worst ways to connect this CD player? If the next piece in the system has a very good DAC, it reduces the CD player (any brand or model) to being just the transport. The optical connection used to be seen as the only upgrade to analog and that would include analog with XLR- that's still using the CD player's DAC and the only difference would be higher output and slightly lower noise, but only if the player AND the piece that's receiving the signal has true balanced LoZ input.

LowZ/Balanced connections don't make something better, it's the circuits that are used which make it better.

Yes, this will work- read the manuals because that shows how to connect it to the AVR.

Yes, the other ways WILL work.

 

[Chris Anderson]

How is optical one of the worst ways to connect this CD player? If the next piece in the system has a very good DAC, it reduces the CD player (any brand or model) to being just the transport. The optical connection used to be seen as the only upgrade to analog and that would include analog with XLR- that's still using the CD player's DAC and the only difference would be higher output and slightly lower noise, but only if the player AND the piece that's receiving the signal has true balanced LoZ input.

LowZ/Balanced connections don't make something better, it's the circuits that are used which make it better.

Yes, this will work- read the manuals because that shows how to connect it to the AVR.

Yes, the other ways WILL work.

because fiber has a limited amount of data it can read max 96Khz coaxial carries more data same HDMI more data better quality simple

 

[highfigh]

because fiber has a limited amount of data it can read max 96Khz coaxial carries more data same HDMI more data better quality simple

You really need to read real data, not marketing BS.

TOSLINK Fiber Optic Cables DO Support 24-bit 192khz Audio

TOSLINK fiber optic cables are more than capable of supporting audio resolutions 24-bit 192khz and more with a few caveats. Find out what's needed to play and enjoy your audio over fiber optics.

ayrn.io

Do you know that fiber optics is used for high speed data transmission at rates which are several orders of magnitude higher than anything in audio codecs?

Researchers Set New Fiber Optic Speed Record of 178 Tbps

Download all of Netflix in less than a second

www.tomshardware.com

No Copper wire cable can come close to fiber optic WRT transmission rates. "Better quality"? I bet your HDMI and speaker cables have batteries- am I correct?

 

[Chris Anderson]

You really need to read real data, not marketing BS.

TOSLINK Fiber Optic Cables DO Support 24-bit 192khz Audio

TOSLINK fiber optic cables are more than capable of supporting audio resolutions 24-bit 192khz and more with a few caveats. Find out what's needed to play and enjoy your audio over fiber optics.

ayrn.io

Do you know that fiber optics is used for high speed data transmission at rates which are several orders of magnitude higher than anything in audio codecs?

Researchers Set New Fiber Optic Speed Record of 178 Tbps

Download all of Netflix in less than a second

www.tomshardware.com

No Copper wire cable can come close to fiber optic WRT transmission rates. "Better quality"? I bet your HDMI and speaker cables have batteries- am I correct?

I read WHAT HI FI magazine Internet data is different from data from DAC and no my cable don't have batteries

 

[Chris Anderson]

I read WHAT HI FI magazine Internet data is different from data from DAC and no my cable don't have batteries

A coaxial connection is perfect for transmitting a digital audio signal. You can get better sonic results with it than with an optical connection. This is due to the lack of signal conversion that occurs in the case of a coaxial connection. A coaxial connection may support a higher signal resolution (most commonly 24-bit/192kHz). For optical connections, the maximum throughput is typically limited to 96 kHz.


The main disadvantage of a coaxial connection, however, is the greater risk of transmitting interference along with the useful audio signal. Therefore, when choosing a coaxial cable, special attention should be paid to its shielding.


Coaxial connections do not have enough bandwidth to support high-quality surround sound formats: Dolby True HD or DTS-HD Master Audio. Thus, in a modern home theater system, the possibilities of its use are very limited. The bandwidth of the coaxial connection is 52 Mb/s

Which connection to use?


The answer to this question depends on the type of devices you want to connect. If you are going to send a digital audio signal and you are considering a coaxial or optical connection, we advise you to choose the former. We know from experience that using a coaxial connection we can get better sound quality. It's all about a higher level of detail and better dynamics.


If you have a home theater system, the best solution will undoubtedly be to use the HDMI connector. As we have already mentioned, it allows you to transmit audio and video signals with one cable, which significantly reduces the number of cables. In addition, due to the high bandwidth, you don't have to worry about signal quality limitations.

ANY QUESTIONS?????

BUT XLR will be defo better from coaxial in audio I talk about sound quality

 

[Trell]

That's fine if the Amp and CD player has XLR sockets. CD players with XLR connections are few and far between
I've just seen your reply, Really there will be little or no advantage in using XLR cables as apposed to RCA, with low end gear

Same for “high-end” aka expensive.

 

[Chris Anderson]

listening


The source was the Pioneer PD-S604 CD player with a completely new separate balanced path. It should also be mentioned that the XLR path sounds completely different than the RCA used in most cases. Hence, we decided to directly compare the Townshend XLR cables with the ones we use in our system on a daily basis. Just after connecting the cables to the audio path, what caught our attention was the fact that, compared to our cables, the system started to sound more dynamic in the lower registers and with more details, which we paid attention to on average earlier. They appeared mainly in the midrange. The latter fact, in our opinion, results from the fact that the upper midrange was slightly more emphasized and there were a lot of details placed in this range of the reproduced range. The strikes ofMichael Arnopol's fingers on the strings of the double bass in the song "Use Me" performed together with Patricia Barber were distinctly audible, which created an even greater feeling of the presence of musicians in our room. All kinds of "disturbances" in the songs performed by Airto Moreira were also more audible than before. The music scene is a bit more forward than before, but it is not as deep as in the case of using the cables that we have in the system every day. The sound breaks away from the speakers and fills the space between the speakers very decently. The upper registers sound very natural, they are not obtrusive, but we have the impression of a slightly "brighter" sound, combined with a more saturated midrange, we also have the impression of very high resolution. When it comes to vocals, thanks to the use of the Isolda DCT 300 we had the opportunity to enjoy all kinds of "flavors", the music becomes really alive! The aforementioned resolution, which we obtain through the use of these cables, also contributes to the fact that we are able to clearly distinguish what the instruments are made of, the cymbals sound like real, each hit on the wooden resonance box, or as in the case of hand hits on the piano casing vocalist Wojciech Myrczek in the song "Little sunflower" from the album Myrczek & Tomaszewski - Love Revisited sounded really natural. Low tones compared to our cable are more perceptible and match the midrange very well. Nathan East's bass guitar in the song "Old Love" from the MTV Unplugged concert sounded great with a full, warm sound. Great and with a flourish, that's what it's all about, isn't it?

ANY QUESTIONS????
The post wasn't about which cable is better only was about it is possible connect XLR from amp to cd player and if this will work or not

 

[highfigh]

I read WHAT HI FI magazine Internet data is different from data from DAC and no my cable don't have batteries

High data rates and high frequency go together.

What HiFi Magazine is driven by ad revenue but there are other sources for this info that are independent.

 

[j_garcia]

Sounds like BS to me. I have all XLR from my Preamp to amp, which is where XLR is more commonly found. Previously used RCA, there was no magical sound difference. I use various Patrica Barber albums for comparison too, I am very familiar with her music over many years on many systems, so I know what I am hearing.

You CAN connect a CD player directly to an amp as long as it has volume control, otherwise you need a preamp. If the source device does not have XLR though, then the answer would obviously be no.

 

[Eppie]

I'm not sure why you are even asking. The A6A has one set of balanced inputs on Audio-4 and the CD player has a set of balanced outputs. Why would it not work? Just get a set of balanced cables and relabel the input on the AVR if that feature is supported.

I'm with the others in that you seem to have fallen prey to a lot of the marketing hype that is out there. Those articles that you quoted contain a lot of flowery language that is based solely on subjective opinions. There is no data to show that anything being said is actually true or measurable. This is the "snake oil" that is often referred to on this site. If the CD player only had RCA outputs then I would not bother with RCA to XLR adapter cables but since both units have balanced connections there is nothing wrong with using them. They tend to be less prone to picking up RF interference, but that's not usually an issue in residential setups.

"BUT XLR will be defo better from coaxial in audio I talk about sound quality"

That is incorrect because you are trying to compare an analogue connection to a digital connection. When using the XLR connections, you are using the DAC that is internal to the CD player to convert the digital CD content to analogue. If you use a coaxial or optical connection, the CD sends the digital stream to the AVR and the AVR's internal DAC performs the analogue to digital conversion. Which is better depends upon the DAC chip that is used, but DACs have been around for so long (decades) that it is a mature technology and there is virtually no audible difference between one chip and the next unless you get into the really cheap gear.

In fact, if you are using any digital processing on your AVR, the XLR connection will likely provide little benefit over coaxial or optical. That is because any modern AVR will take the analogue signal and convert it to digital, then perform the processing in the digital domain, and then convert back to analogue for the amplifier. You can avoid that anolgue to digital to analogue conversion if the AVR has a "pure" or "direct" mode which disables processing but if you are using YPAO room correction you loose the benefits of that in direct mode.

 

[Chris Anderson]

I like your answer thanks
...and what the hell is BS???

 

[Trell]

I like your answer thanks
...and what the hell is BS???

BS = bull shìt.

 

[j_garcia]

BS = Bull s**t from those articles that you are reading. Red flags for me would be things like "we had the opportunity to enjoy all kinds of "flavors", the music becomes really alive!" when talking about speaker cables. I have tried many different speaker cables over the years and never heard that kind of difference with them.

I have home built cables with Canare 4S11 and the same type of connectors on those "magic" cables simply because the cable itself is already jacketed making them easy to manage and route. Sound wise, it did not suddenly become "the artist is now standing in front of me" vs. before those cables.

 

[Chris Anderson]

Sounds like BS to me. I have all XLR from my Preamp to amp, which is where XLR is more commonly found. Previously used RCA, there was no magical sound difference. I use various Patrica Barber albums for comparison too, I am very familiar with her music over many years on many systems, so I know what I am hearing.

You CAN connect a CD player directly to an amp as long as it has volume control, otherwise you need a preamp. If the source device does not have XLR though, then the answer would obviously be no.

I can't believe with that what you say meaby time to invest in hi end speakers??? RCA connectors have any player even the cheapest but XLR only the more expensive ones from the top shelf is a reason for that

 

[j_garcia]

Speakers make the biggest difference in any system. Cables do not. Newsflash: people who say they hear the voice of god with cables want to sell you their dipped in koolaid cables.

My speakers are not an issue. My next speaker upgrade will be to the next step up from my Phils to BMRs.