Hi all
I was just wondering what your preferences were in hooking up your Goldenear gear to your amps - rca or xlr?

I spoke to Bel Canto over email a while ago and they basically told me my amps would sound better connected via xlr over rca.

I have previously upgraded my deqx to the premate edition which now has XLR inputs. I have to say the sound coming out of these monos is significantly improved again. A very decent uplift from my previous rca connection. I don't think it was just the deqx upgrade either as I have been running my old rca connections for weeks and I have only just bought the xlrs for it.

Is this across the board or is it dependent on the amp? I wouldn't have thought it would make much of a difference but in this case it really has.

For the few members who have the bel canto m600s monos I would give xlr a go and let me know if you hear the same thing. I used the exact same cables for the xlr as I was using for the rca so I can rule out any cable flavour difference. It was a straight A/B test between xlr and rca.

I would be interested to hear your experiences with it.

Hey Steveo,
Everyone has their opinions, but I think Most agree with:
XLR is best sounding, quieter for LONG connections.
XLR is a more solid connection, less likely to fall off
XLR in a fully balanced setup will be a bit louder, therefore a little more headroom.
For the above reasons, I use XLR connections when I can. However, I have some really great MIT interconnects (with matching speaker cables) that are RCA, and they are so much better than any other cables I can afford, that I use them in a couple of main places and they are better than my whole lot less expensive XLRs.
So, IMHO, XLR is the BEST connection, but the kind/type/make of cable could be good enough that, especially on short runs, RCA can be the best, in certain uses.
YMMV,
Hope this helps,
God Bless,
Wayne

Cheers Wayne, that's a great insight and I agree with you

I did lots of comparison RCA to XLR and the XLR cable connection produced a better sound with my system. In my opinion it's worth the switch. I turned around and sold most of my Audio Quest RCA jacks to help fund the XLR cables. XLR is the only way to go...in my humble opinion.

Del

WayneWilmeth wrote: XLR in a fully balanced setup will be a bit louder, therefore a little more headroom.

I agree with most of what Wayne said, but whether XLR will be louder depends on the design of the output circuitry. My Aurelic Vega DAC has the same output level whether RCA or XLR. I think they cut the signal level in half before sending it out XLR.

I'm using RCA with my Bel Cantos, and I'm interested in what Steveo has experienced. All I have to do is buy another $2k of Audience XLR interconnects to see what changes I hear! After break in is finished.

Steveo, Wayne mentioned XLR having an advantage for long cable runs (noise rejection), which I agree with. How long are your interconnect runs?

Charlie

Steveo and Charlie,
I have also heard about long runs are better with XLR cables then RCA cables. In my case, my run is 18 inches long so that was not a factor, just the better sound is why I went with XLR over RCA jack cables.

Del