Unbalanced Amp with Balanced preamp and Dac

[thebrieze]

My amp only has RCA inputs, however my preamp does have both RCA and XLR Inputs/outputs. I am planning to get a miniDSP SHD to act as a streamer, room correction and DAC which has both RCA as well as XLR outputs.

Is there any value is using the XLR outputs of the SHD to the Preamp, if I will be using the RCA outputs to the amp?

While the SHD can act as a pre as well, I want to keep my tube based Pre in the chain.


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[lovinthehd]

Generally no advantage to using balanced over unbalanced on short runs, unless perhaps a particularly noisy environment.

 

[WaynePflughaupt]

There is no good reason to send XLR outputs to RCA inputs.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[thebrieze]

I see so unless the amp can accept XLR, might as well stick to RCA from the source.


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[lovinthehd]

It really wouldn't make a difference....unless it was the only way to connect of course

Unless you have each of your components a great distance from each other...maybe.

 

[WaynePflughaupt]

I see so unless the amp can accept XLR, might as well stick to RCA from the source.

Correct. The main advantage XLR (balanced) offers is better noise rejection over long distances. However, that requires a balanced connection on both ends. An XLR on one end to an RCA on the other is an unbalanced connection – it’s functionally no different than RCA to RCA.

However, XLR connectors are significantly more robust and far superior to RCAs. So a case could be made that it’s not a bad idea to use them anywhere you can.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[thebrieze]

Cable between Dac and Preamp would be about 4 feet.

 

[lovinthehd]

A fairly short run.