I have a question about connecting XLR cables

[TLS Guy]

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

You really have sucked up a lot of cod's wallop. XLR connections are for very long runs, mainly for issues about noise. For short runs, like in domestic equipment XLR has zero to offer over unbalanced RCA. None.

Both optical and RCA digital are good connections for most purposes, except for certain applications like ARC.

Your best connection to a receiver from a CD player or any peripheral for that matter, is a digital one. If you use analog you will end up with double conversions.

It is clear to me that you have been on a zillion sites full of wrong and harmful information.

On this site you will get the unvarnished truth, and the best advice you can get pretty much anywhere. There are many friend here who work hard to keep it that way.

If you don't like truth, then go the the 'fairytale' sites.

 

[Trell]

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

XLR cables have their use in home hi-fi if you’ve a noise problem, be it a ground loop or something picked up along the way.

If both the source and sink have balanced input/output that determines what cable I use. Excellent quality cables with XLR or TRS can be had at for quite an inexpensive price.

 

[Eppie]

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

Here is an amplifier an Ali-Express. It has XLR inputs!!! Does that make it good? That made in China amplifier sells for $100. Having XLR connections does not guarantee quality. XLR was developed for professional audio use primarily because of the long cable runs and the need to reject external electrical noise. It was later adapted to the home market. Yes, there are advantages of XLR over RCA, but it is how those internal circuits are designed that makes the difference. A poorly designed XLR input will not perform better than a properly designed RCA input. There are plenty of great amplifiers out there that use RCA. Most home systems use 1m (3 foot) cables and at that short a length the difference between XLR and RCA is negligible.

 

[highfigh]

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

Bull shyte. Marketing drivel is mostly selling dreams, rarely factual.

If you want the real story on LowZ/balanced audio, look at white papers from companies like Rane and others that make commercial and large venue audio equipment. In that world, one piece may be hundreds of feet from each other and THAT'S why this was originally used. Still is in heavy use and for most of that kind of equipment, XLR plugs and jacks aren't even used.

 

[Swerd]

Two posts have already pointed out that balanced connections, with or without XLR type plugs are used for very long cable runs.

XLR connections are for very long runs, mainly for issues about noise.

If you want the real story on LowZ/balanced audio, look at white papers from companies like Rane and others that make commercial and large venue audio equipment. In that world, one piece may be hundreds of feet from each other and THAT'S why this was originally used.

I'd add that most of these long cable runs are microphone cables, which have very low signal levels, roughly 5 mVolts. Microphone cables are prone to picking up interference from radio frequency (RFI) or other electromagnetic sources (EMI), because of the low signal voltage they carry, and because the long cables can act like antenna for RFI/EMI. Balanced connections reject that kind of noise.

At home, I know of no cable runs nearly as long as microphone cables in live sound or recording studios. The voltage level of analog audio signals from a CD player are in the range of 100 to 150 mV. That's 20 to 30 times the voltage from a microphone. And finally, very few homes have trouble from RFI/EMI noise.

At home, the only audio source with signal levels as low as microphones are phonograph pickups. Moving magnet pickups are similar in voltage to microphones, and moving coil pickups are lower! With phonographs, we get by without resorting to balanced connections with XLR type plugs. Those connections do have to be kept no longer than 1 meter, and AC power lines have be kept away from them. But that has never been difficult to do, even with unbalanced lines with RCA plugs.

I once asked a recording engineer why pro-audio uses balanced or XLR cables, when home audio uses RCA type cables for similar connections. He said it was a practical matter. Why have both XLR and RCA type cables? It's much simpler to use only one type, so RCA type cables were dropped. Balanced XLR type cables were used for any and all connections whether they had to be balanced or not.

@Chris Anderson – ANY QUESTIONS???

 

[Verdinut]

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

If you don't have to use long cables, XLR connectors don't provide any improvement over RCA interconnects. The only advantage of the XLR system, apart from having sturdier connections, is RF/EMI noise reduction and only for lengths exceeding 15 feet.

 

[j_garcia]

I used XLR because they cut down drastically on the rat's nest behind the system. I use it for my sub too, which is about 15ft from my Pre. Cables were actually cheaper than comparable RCA as well.

 

[Chris Anderson]

If you tape on Google DIFFERENCE BETWEEN XLR AND RCA you will have tons information ALL THE SAME from different sources the XLR are much much better with sound and quality then RCA

 

[lovinthehd]

If you tape on Google DIFFERENCE BETWEEN XLR AND RCA you will have tons information ALL THE SAME from different sources the XLR are much much better with sound and quality then RCA

Sounds like poor sources then.

 

[Chris Anderson]

Sounds like poor sources then.

Everywhere each single article says the same thing and only one audio forum over here have different opinion

 

[PENG]

Everywhere each single article says the same thing and only one audio forum over here have different opinion

There are probably a lot more poor sources that HD referred to, than good sources. With the internet, people don't need to have recognized expertise on something, to write a book, anyone can say anything, even make YT videos to tell or teach people things whether they are telling/teaching the right things.

Even on this forum, there are the good and bad too. One just has to be careful, in choosing what to believe. So far, you are getting good suggestions. I prefer XLR too, for reasons others have mentioned, but "better sound"? In some cases that could be, but in general, no, unless you are getting noise issues (hiss, hum) when using RCAs, then XLR may help reduce or eliminate such noise, but even then, it depends on the causes of the noise.

 

[Chris Anderson]

There are probably a lot more poor sources that HD referred to, than good sources. With the internet, people don't need to have recognized expertise on something, to write a book, anyone can say anything, even make YT videos to tell or teach people things whether they are telling/teaching the right things.

Even on this forum, there are the good and bad too. One just has to be careful, in choosing what to believe. So far, you are getting good suggestions. I prefer XLR too, for reasons others have mentioned, but "better sound"? In some cases that could be, but in general, no, unless you are getting noise issues (hiss, hum) when using RCAs, then XLR may help reduce or eliminate such noise, but even then, it depends on the causes of the noise.

Yes I can agree with your answer best connection from amp to CD is digital connection but if we decide use only analogue connection well XLR have first place in my opinion but that is just my opinion from this what I read all around I don't try yet but I will the main reason is to get best sound best quality audio nothing else

 

[isolar8001]

The reviewer here says that XLR made no difference in his rather scathing opinion of the Yamaha s2100.

An honest review of the Yamaha CD-S2100 SACD player

I don't typically review stereo components on this blog, preferring to concentrate on the music. But as I've had problems with this particular piece of equipment since day one, and seeing that it...

www.davidsclassicalcds.com

 

[PENG]

Yes I can agree with your answer best connection from amp to CD is digital connection but if we decide use only analogue connection well XLR have first place in my opinion but that is just my opinion from this what I read all around I don't try yet but I will the main reason is to get best sound best quality audio nothing else

That isn't me you referred to as my comments are based on using analog connections.

 

[BMXTRIX]

If you tape on Google DIFFERENCE BETWEEN XLR AND RCA you will have tons information ALL THE SAME from different sources the XLR are much much better with sound and quality then RCA

Here's the deal - You're reading too much into things.

@Eppie gave you a very reasoned response earlier in this thread, and hopefully I can as well...

If you're unsure of what a technology actually provides, then reading is good, but asking questions is better. Is XLR better than analog RCA? Yep! Sure is! XLR connections can go hundreds of feet and have built in analog noise removal as part of the technology.

So... All concert artists must use XLR right? Nope! They use digital. The entire world has pretty much moved to a digital audio chain because it is basically noise free. A digital connection over a RCA cable is not actually susceptible to noise. It can have digital audio dropouts, but it really doesn't get noise into the digital audio at all. Optical can go hundreds of feet without any digital loss....

But, are you going hundreds of feet? Dozens of feet? Or less than a few feet?

THIS! This question is what matters: HOW LONG IS YOUR CABLE GOING TO BE?

When you finally realize that you aren't dealing with long cable lengths, you realize that the potential gain/loss in the audio quality is going to be incredibly small. To a point of being inaudible. But... WHO CARES?

The golden rule is to use the best possible connection for your specific equipment type. If you want to use the DACs in your CD player, which is perfectly fine, then use them, and then the ONLY way I would make an analog connection is to use the XLRs. They ARE there, and they ARE the best connection. Even if they don't audibly sound one bit better, there is no reason not to use them over the RCA analog connections.

If you would prefer to use the DACs in your AVR, then I would use either the optical or the coaxial digital connection. Both of them will provide an identical audio experience. IDENTICAL. Don't get fooled into thinking otherwise.

My opinion? You've paid for a high end CD player which has excellent DACs in it. So, I would use them, and I would use XLR connections between the CD player and the AVR because they are available. This gear isn't cheap, and it works well, so make use of it. But, don't actually think you are getting a 'far superior' experience then if you had just used optical or coaxial digital, or even the regular analog RCA connections. It just isn't reality.

Above all else - absolutely do NOT overpay for your cables. Decent cables, at a fair price, are available from a long list of manufacturers and they all sound exactly the same. It is standard practice to use very thin cabling for XLR, because it specifically doesn't need the shielding that RCA cables need. So, buying a really nice XLR cable may make you feel good, but will do nothing to improve audio quality.

The end game for you should be the best possible audio quality, and this will happen when you use the best connection. But, the ACTUAL audio quality you get is likely to be nearly identical and should really have zero real world audible difference when using the different connection types. Instead of arguing about what you're reading online, I would just get a XLR cable and some RCA cables as well as an optical cable and just try them all out. Call it some money spent on a learning experience. You should NOT pay more than $10 per cable. If you read that expensive cables are better, that's a serious error. Then, do some testing yourself. Don't be fooled into thinking that more volume is the same as higher quality. That's not the case. But, certainly, I would likely hook up those XLRs and call it a day, even if they don't sound any better, they are a great way to get audio between the CD transport and the AV receiver.

 

[lovinthehd]

Everywhere each single article says the same thing and only one audio forum over here have different opinion

Again, you apparently use poor sources of information....

 

[highfigh]

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

The whole point of using balanced LowZ is that it DOESN'T require anything special WRT the wiring. The one characteristic that's needed is low resistance. Low impedance makes it less susceptible to noise pickup and wiring-related alteration of the signal.

The cable used by commercial/industrial contractors has one pair of wires that are twisted along with a bare, stranded conductor, with an Aluminum foil wrap around the twisted conductors, all in some kind of plastic jacket. The cable used by 'high end audiopile' companies is pretty, usually thick and often has some braided mess wrapped around it with heat shrink or flexible crap around the end of the cable and reaching past the end of the plugs, which usually have some kind of strain relief.

The bare bones approach works just fine and the cost doesn't need to be high.

I bought IXOS cables for a customer and when they showed up, I was pissed. Three braided wires, a translucent white Nylon wrap and no-name XLR ends in a box that probably cost more than the contents. These had a retail price of $400 and they probably cost ten bucks AT RETAIL for the parts and materials. The wires were white, black and green, so it's possible that they bought extension cords, removed the jacket and made those cables- they were no better than my old Audio Technica mic cables.

RCA cables are supplied with music players because they work.

 

[highfigh]

Everywhere each single article says the same thing and only one audio forum over here have different opinion

OK then, name your sources.

Check this out-

From https://producerhive.com/ask-the-hive/spdif-vs-optical/,

"The truth is that SPDIF is a connection protocol that can sometimes use optical connections.?

One major difference between optical and S/PDIF- you CAN'T have a ground loop or RF/EMI problem with optical.

 

[highfigh]

Yes I can agree with your answer best connection from amp to CD is digital connection but if we decide use only analogue connection well XLR have first place in my opinion but that is just my opinion from this what I read all around I don't try yet but I will the main reason is to get best sound best quality audio nothing else

When facts matter, opinions have no place.

Which piece has the best DAC? That should determine the cabling. If it's the AVR, use digital of any kind and let the AVR decode but if you want to use XLR, you're not going to be listening in anything other than stereo, so pick something and live with it- listen to the music, not the cables.

 

[Swerd]

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 of Michael 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?

Despite your efforts, this entire post convinces no one that CD music sounds better if its analog signals are sent from a CD player via a balanced line using cables with XLR plugs. Instead, it demonstrates that you don't understand the value of blind listening to compare possible differences in sound quality. You simply assumed that using balanced lines sounds better, and went on to describe it. You cannot assume that point if you're trying to convince us that it's true. That's circular logic.

Did you compare analog signals sent both by unbalanced cables with RCA plugs (unbalanced/RCA) vs. balanced lines with XLR plugs (balanced/XLR)? My eyes quickly glazed over when I read your florid descriptions of the sound from balanced/XLR. Were there any descriptions of what you heard with unbalanced/RCA connections? And, I read nothing about comparisons to sound from a digital connection.

Most important is that listeners must not know which type of connection they are hearing. It has been known for a long time that the identity of a product, or its price, affects what listeners believe they hear. Blind testing, widely accepted in comparisons of taste or smell, has long recognized that. You can easily avoid sources of bias like that with blind listeners during the comparison. Your post mentioned nothing about blinded listeners.

In blind listening tests, the items being compared must be presented to the listeners at the same volume. This is another well known source of bias, as nearly all listeners perceive the louder version as sounding better. Because balance/XLR connections are known to be somewhat louder than unbalanced/RCA connections, this can be another source of possible bias. Did you make an effort to keep both the same volume?

Address these concerns, and you just might get more serious attention to your claims.