Hey guys, I have a scenario I would appreciate your opinions on
I have an all-Schiit audio system which includes the following components:
- Turntable to Mani
- Bifrost 2
- Asgard 3
- SYS (to be replaced by Freya S)
- Loki mini + (to be upgraded to a Lokius in the future)
- Vidar
- Freya S – ordered yesterday, hopefully getting here by next week
So far everything is wired through cheap Monoprice RCA cables. Given that the Freya S will be here soon, I have decided to upgrade my interconnects and had been considering switching from RCAs to XLRs gradually (some of my current components are single ended only). At this time, I would only be able to connect the Bifrost through XLRs to the Freya S, the rest would still need to be RCA’s. Once I upgrade the Loki mini to the Lokius and perhaps going with a balanced headphone amp (Jotunheim?) I could be able to make the jump to fully balanced except for the Turntable and Mani.
After doing some research, my understanding is that unless connections need to be long (which is not my case), there are no perceptible differences in audio quality when comparing RCA vs XLR, except for perhaps an increase in volume when using XLR. If this is correct and there are no drawbacks if I stick with RCA’s, I could upgrade all my interconnects to good quality RCA’s (Blue Jeans or World’s best cables) and stick with RCA even when most of my gear will at some point include balanced options.
This makes more financial sense to me rather than upgrading to a mixture of good quality XLR and RCA’s right now and then buying additional XLR’s in the future once my gear allows.
My mind is almost set on sticking with RCA’s unless you think I could be losing something by staying single-ended. Any inputs will be appreciated.