[spraggih]

I have a Lavry DA-10 which I am considering connecting from its XLR out to an external amplifier (RCA in). And that's when all of the confusion starts:

Should I just get a Blue Jeans cable?
Should I do the Headphile thing?
What about a cheap option - does it really matter?*
* - I think the connectors matter

What if I decide to sell my Lavry - will anyone want a Female XLR to male RCA?

Should I just get an XLR->RCA adapter and then have my choice of RCA connectors?

How can you tell good quality-no frills from good quality-+frills?

This makes me a little dizzy.

 

[Davesrose]

I'm just looking at a dedicated DAC for myself (now siding between Benchmark or Lavry). Having XLR outputs will be nice for when I decide to get a balanced amp.....but I didn't know you could use balanced XLRs to go to RCA. Whould that do any damage to the output stage of the DAC??

Why not use RCA to RCA? Just get some good shielded interconnects, and I would think it would sound better.....since it's getting a source it was intended for. Anyway, would like to hear what this is about!

Quote:

Originally Posted by spraggih I have a Lavry DA-10 which I am considering connecting from its XLR out to an external amplifier (RCA in). And that's when all of the confusion starts:

 

[smartins]

Quote:

Originally Posted by spraggih Should I just get an XLR->RCA adapter and then have my choice of RCA connectors? How can you tell good quality-no frills from good quality-+frills?

This is how I decided to connect my DA10. XLR->RCA adapter (bought these). From what I've seen told here there is little to no difference between using a XLR->RCA adapter or a XLR->RCA cable.

The XLR-RCA is a much better solution for me since its much easier to get RCA cables (I have 4 atm and a few more on the way - I'm experimenting several different cable types) and also there's more choices available.

 

[spraggih]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Davesrose I'm just looking at a dedicated DAC for myself (now siding between Benchmark or Lavry). Having XLR outputs will be nice for when I decide to get a balanced amp.....but I didn't know you could use balanced XLRs to go to RCA. Whould that do any damage to the output stage of the DAC?? Why not use RCA to RCA? Just get some good shielded interconnects, and I would think it would sound better.....since it's getting a source it was intended for. Anyway, would like to hear what this is about!

You can not use RCA-RCA only as the Lavry does not have RCA out - it only has XLR out and headphone out - I assume trying to use the headphone out (1/4") would not bypass the internal amp - defeating the purpose.

So I thought my only option with the Lavry would be XLR-RCA.

 

[Davesrose]

Humm.....good to know about that! Was leaning towards getting the Benchmark for myself, which I know offers both XLR and RCA out. Would be interesting to see if there's any difference in SQ between a XLR or RCA output on a DAC.

Quote:

Originally Posted by spraggih You can not use RCA-RCA only as the Lavry does not have RCA out - it only has XLR out and headphone out - I assume trying to use the headphone out (1/4") would not bypass the internal amp - defeating the purpose.

 

[spraggih]

Yes. There are a number of options including an XLR/RCA adapter whereby you could use RCA-RCA at that point. I do not know if the sound is better one way or another - I am expecting a response from Lavry on that very question shortly - I will let you know what I hear.


Quote:

Originally Posted by Davesrose Humm.....good to know about that! Was leaning towards getting the Benchmark for myself, which I know offers both XLR and RCA out. Would be interesting to see if there's any difference in SQ between a XLR or RCA output on a DAC.

 

[Davesrose]

I would appreciate that! Wasn't even aware that it would be possible to run XLR to RCA......I'm sure Lavry would say if it hampers their DACs or not. Let us know how you're liking your new DAC too.....since it's the same price as the Benchmark, I may be flipping a coin to decide on one

:-D

Quote:

Originally Posted by spraggih Yes. There are a number of options including an XLR/RCA adapter whereby you could use RCA-RCA at that point. I do not know if the sound is better one way or another - I am expecting a response from Lavry on that very question shortly - I will let you know what I hear.

 

[sbulack]

I had a similar connection situation to deal with when I wanted to use the DAC built into my Behringer 2496. It's main audio out connector pair is XLR (servo-balanced), and I wanted to put the audio into an unbalanced (RCA pair) amp using an RCA cable that I already owned and loved. I started with the Hosa XLR-RCA adapters at $20 / pair to see if I liked the sound of the Behringer's DAC. When I realized that I LOVED its sound, I sprang for a pair of Cardas XLR-RCA adapters at $75 / pair. The additional aspects of sound that the Cardas let through compared to the Hosa adapters made them easily worth their price. Pretty much go through every Audiophile Score Card line item, and the Cardas displayed that aspect of the sound blatantly better than the Hosa - but the Hosa were good enough to let me know that the DAC in the Behringer was good enough to invest in. I recently upgraded my RCA cable to the latest version from the same Cable-maker, and I am slack-jawed amazed at the improvements. The adapters allow me to do this, and I'm not just happy. I'm frequently amazed at the audio that I am privileged to hear every day.

I went the XLR-RCA adapter (rather than cable) route because I already had an RCA cable that I loved, and it was less expensive to get the Cardas adapters than to re-purchase or have modified my existing RCA cable, and it allows me the flexibility to upgrade the RCA cable. The quality of the RCA I'm using is SO good and cost-effective that the overall quality of the audio path can stand whatever degradation can be said to be introduced by the adapters - to where I'm getting merely amazing sound instead of even-more-amazing sound. That is MY experience and cost-benefit trade-off.

 

[spraggih]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sbulack /img/forum/go_quote.gif I had a similar connection situation to deal with when I wanted to use the DAC built into my Behringer 2496. ... I started with the Hosa XLR-RCA adapters at $20 / pair to see if I liked the sound of the Behringer's DAC. When I realized that I LOVED its sound, I sprang for a pair of Cardas XLR-RCA adapters at $75 / pair. The additional aspects of sound that the Cardas let through compared to the Hosa adapters made them easily worth their price. ... I recently upgraded my RCA cable to the latest version from the same Cable-maker, and I am slack-jawed amazed at the improvements. The adapters allow me to do this, and I'm not just happy. ... I went the XLR-RCA adapter (rather than cable) route because I already had an RCA cable that I loved, and it was less expensive to get the Cardas adapters than to re-purchase or have modified my existing RCA cable, and it allows me the flexibility to upgrade the RCA cable.

Well I decided to have Grandenigma build me an XLR-RCA cable (his cables get points here on Head-fi and they look so cool But I was thinking the same thing you were in terms of versatility and I also bought an XLR-RCA adapter from him. I will use both and try out different RCAs to see if one particular RCA allows the music to flow best. Perhaps the XLR-RCA cable will be the best but now I have options.