cable question

krauley

So I am over at avsforums reading some stuff and I come across a thread where someone has a bent rca outlet on the back of his amp. His question was 'should he just buy rca to xlr cables instead of shipping his amp to get it fixed'. Well being a little new with having a seperate amp, I have never used xlr connections. Im using rca to rca interconnects from avr to amp. My question is (yeah finally :rolleyes: ) can I use rca to xlr IC's from my Onkyo 808 to Emotiva XPA-5? Would it be any different than rca to rca? And in what situations would rca to xlr be the way to go?
thanks

thsmith

I confess to not have tried an xlr to rca cable, responses below are opinions and mine only

can I use rca to xlr IC's from my Onkyo 808 to Emotiva XPA-5?
You could but the best would be xlr to xlr.

Would it be any different than rca to rca?
nothing

And in what situations would rca to xlr be the way to go?
If you had the cable already, why not.

krauley

Well you have sort of answered my question.

Are you saying that the xlr outputs are just another way of getting unit "A" hooked up to unit "B"? Say if my 808 only had xlr's then i would use xlr to xlr but it only has rca so stay with the rca to rca route?
I have done some googling but everything pertains to xlr to xlr or rca to rca and nothing about rca to xlr, although i saw a rca to xlr cable on audiogon for more than what my
ps3 cost.

anyway thank you for the reply

B Run

XLR cables are balanced, rca's are unbalanced. So if you have an rca on either end then the cable is still unbalanced. The only advantage is a better fit and guarantee they won't become dislodged. I'm using an rca to xlr for my sub amp because that's the only input it has.

ben62670

When you go RCA to XLR you are only using the unbalanced signal just like it was RCA to RCA. Most lower end amps don't use a true balanced signal anyways so XLR only has an advantage when doing very long runs.
I have some cables for sale, and here is the link.

http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?t=116743

tonyb

A completely balanced connection from one end to the other will offer a lower noise floor, possibly. Useing xlr to rca has no benefit except to connect gear lacking in either one. For instance, a broken rca connection, but if that peice of gear had balanced connections too, then you could use balanced to rca cables to make it work.But as far as any sonic benefits on a rca-xlr...zip.

krauley

Thanks all for the replies. I hate asking what might be called noobie questions but I hate worse not understanding something.

zingo

krauley wrote: »

Thanks all for the replies. I hate asking what might be called noobie questions but I hate worse not understanding something.

No problem.