[PrincessLeliana]

Hello! need a bit of help. I have an ifi zendac as my dac and am looking to connect it to an amplifier, the zendac has a 4.4mm balanced out, but the amp im looking to get has dual xlr in, only i can't find a cable that does this out side of china ( wont buy from china due to nothing but bad experiences)

I'm in the UK btw, or i'd just get something from amazon.

Something like this? https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/7rAAAOSwTBtdXg5D/s-l400.jpg

 

[Roseval]

I’m afraid you are a victim of the weird use of the word “balanced” in the headphone world.

A balanced XLR connection as used by the amp is a 3 wire connection (per channel), a hot, a cold and a ground. At the receiver, hot and cold are compared and all difference removed.

The balanced out of the headphone jack is a 4 wire connection instead of the common 3 wire connection.
The 3 wire (called unbalanced) is L,R plus a common ground.
The 4 wire (called balanced for some reason) is L, L ground, R, R ground. Nothing balanced, just 2 time unbalanced out just like you connect your speakers to a power amp.
It allows for far more flexibility at the amp side e.g. push-pull and might reduce crosstalk.

No reason to connect this to your amp as it has nothing to do with the balanced XLR input of the amp.
As the DAC has RCA out, get yourself a RCA to XLR adapter.

 

[PrincessLeliana]

Oh I know, my amp has two inputs, balanced and rca, i would like to use both inputs so if i can get this balanced cable i can use that on my dac and use the rca for my turntable

 

[Roseval]

Oh I know

You know what?
You have TT with RCA out and DAC with RCA out.
Get a RCA to XLR adapter to connect one of them to the XLR input of your amp.

 

[PrincessLeliana]

You know what?
You have TT with RCA out and DAC with RCA out.
Get a RCA to XLR adapter to connect one of them to the XLR input of your amp.

I mean im sure that would work, but if im gonna buy a new expensive cable id like to be the proper one that i can use on other stuffs

 

[Roseval]

Something like
https://www.amazon.com/Monoprice-XLR-Male-RCA-Cable/dp/B001VLW398
https://www.parts-express.com/xlr-male-to-rca-female-adapter--240-438
?

 

[PrincessLeliana]

Would those work? The other issue is finding them in the UK, our amazon has nothing.