What are the improvements of using BALANCED to RCA cables??

[Syan25]

I am hoping to get some BALANCED to RCA cables made. My Yulong D100 has balanced outputs - and I was hoping to feed them into my headphone amp - which is RCA only?
 
Can anyone tell me the advantages of getting this cable built? Please let me know...Cheers!

 

[JerryLove]

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I am hoping to get some BALANCED to RCA cables made. My Yulong D100 has balanced outputs - and I was hoping to feed them into my headphone amp - which is RCA only?
 
Can anyone tell me the advantages of getting this cable built? Please let me know...Cheers!

 
If your D100 has *only* balanced outputs: the advantage is that you will get sound.
If your D100 has RCA outputs as well, there is no advantage to having a funny adapter on one end.

 

[Syan25]

The Yulong D100 has both RCA and balanced outputs... my head amp only has RCA

 

[johangrb]

Zero benefit going XLR - RCA. Stick with RCA-RCA.
 
http://www.audioholics.com/education/cables/balanced-vs-unbalanced-interconnects

 

[Omega17TheTrue]

You get better sound with RCA-RCA then XLR-RCA, there is no benefits unless you go XLR-XLR with truly balanced gear.

 

[.Sup]

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You get better sound with RCA-RCA then XLR-RCA, there is no benefits unless you go XLR-XLR with truly balanced gear.

wow can you explain why RCA>RCA is better than XLR>RCA?

 

[endless402]

that depends on the quality of your xlr output vs rca output
 
for example, cambridge audio dacmagic was designed to have a balanced output first
the signal was fed to the xlr and then passed on through a crappy OP275 stage to produce an unbalanced signal
 
obviously i dont know the design of your dac
 
 
buy some cheap xlr to rca adapters to try (since ppl on this board say cables dont matter)

 

[tmars78]

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You get better sound with RCA-RCA then XLR-RCA, there is no benefits unless you go XLR-XLR with truly balanced gear.

wow can you explain why RCA>RCA is better than XLR>RCA?

 
Here is a thread I started, its short and to the point when I had a question about balanced -vs- unbalanced.
 
http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/533390/unbalanced-rca-louder-than-unbalanced-rca-to-trs
 

 

[.Sup]

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that depends on the quality of your xlr output vs rca output
 
for example, cambridge audio dacmagic was designed to have a balanced output first
the signal was fed to the xlr and then passed on through a crappy OP275 stage to produce an unbalanced signal
 
obviously i dont know the design of your dac
 
 
buy some cheap xlr to rca adapters to try (since ppl on this board say cables dont matter)

That's why I don't use the RCA output on DM and that's why I made myself XLR>RCA cables

 

[.Sup]

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You get better sound with RCA-RCA then XLR-RCA, there is no benefits unless you go XLR-XLR with truly balanced gear.

wow can you explain why RCA>RCA is better than XLR>RCA?

 
Here is a thread I started, its short and to the point when I had a question about balanced -vs- unbalanced.
 
http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/533390/unbalanced-rca-louder-than-unbalanced-rca-to-trs
 

So lower volume is bad all of a sudden?

 

[tmars78]

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You get better sound with RCA-RCA then XLR-RCA, there is no benefits unless you go XLR-XLR with truly balanced gear.

wow can you explain why RCA>RCA is better than XLR>RCA?

 
Here is a thread I started, its short and to the point when I had a question about balanced -vs- unbalanced.
 
http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/533390/unbalanced-rca-louder-than-unbalanced-rca-to-trs
 

So lower volume is bad all of a sudden?

I am not saying its bad, but this was with speakers, so it could have been a good thing, but with headphones, that extra "loudness" you might get with just RCAs could be the difference in getting to the level you want to listen at, and not getting there. 

 

[Syan25]

I think when I started this thread I wasn't clear. I do know the obvious difference between using balanced rather than RCA. What I meant is that I was thinking of using my balanced outputs from my DAC into the RCA inputs of my headphone amp which does NOT have balanced inputs.
 
To do that in one cable - was my original question. This is because I saw Benchmark are selling these cables that are balanced at one end and RCA at the other...
 
 http://www.benchmarkmedia.com/catalog/male-male-digital-audio-cable-meter-p-50.html
 
http://www.benchmarkmedia.com/catalog/male-male-digital-audio-cable-meter-p-53.html
 
My DAC also has RCA outputs - so I was debating whether to use regular RCA inter-connects or balanced/RCA cables. There is a cable shop I know here in Taiwan and the people there have been good with me in the past - but I was hard pressed to trust their observations that balanced/RCA cables would make a difference...so that is why I added the thread...

 

[.Sup]

I understand what you mean tmars. I didn't mean to be that aggressive with my response.

 

[El_Doug]

in theory, there should be no difference, since you will not get a balanced advantage.  HOWEVER, it is possible that either the rca or xlr outputs of your dac will be giving a better sound relative to each other.  someone above mentioned the issues with the DACMagic's rca outputs being compromised.  at the same time, some other DACs are not truly balanced, and instead split and invert the signal in their output stage, sometimes with less than stellar results. 
 
in the end, youre just going to have to either (1) buy the cables and test which output sounds better, or (2) check the schematics and find out if either of the two outputs is compromised in some way. 
 
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I think when I started this thread I wasn't clear. I do know the obvious difference between using balanced rather than RCA. What I meant is that I was thinking of using my balanced outputs from my DAC into the RCA inputs of my headphone amp which does NOT have balanced inputs.
 
To do that in one cable - was my original question. This is because I saw Benchmark are selling these cables that are balanced at one end and RCA at the other...
 
 http://www.benchmarkmedia.com/catalog/male-male-digital-audio-cable-meter-p-50.html
 
http://www.benchmarkmedia.com/catalog/male-male-digital-audio-cable-meter-p-53.html
 
My DAC also has RCA outputs - so I was debating whether to use regular RCA inter-connects or balanced/RCA cables. There is a cable shop I know here in Taiwan and the people there have been good with me in the past - but I was hard pressed to trust their observations that balanced/RCA cables would make a difference...so that is why I added the thread...

 

[tmars78]

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I understand what you mean tmars. I didn't mean to be that aggressive with my response.

Its cool, I didn't take it as aggressive.