Balanced or single ended phono cable to Aesthetix Io?

I have used both - for me I really was not able to resolve much difference with this phono stage.

Admittedly, the balance connections were made with Hovland Music groove cable and the unbalanced everything from home brew silver and cotton to Cardas and Nordost types, so not like for like.

I have landed on the homebrew silver right now and I will try the balanced connectors on those for a definitive a-b.

The Io is phenomenal  phono stage -even today- after all these years after its introduction.

I found that there are other more obvious things that could make a difference than the balanced connectors: tube choices, isolation , dual supplies and interconnect quality between the supplies and the Io.

Good luck with it an feel free to give it a try for yourself.

As I don't have a tonearm with XLR termination, I can't attest to the difference in connection.

However, I have found a convenient use of the XLR input! Since the two connectors are connected in parallel internally, I am using the RCA as the main input and the XLR as the loading port, so I don’t need to fiddle with the tiny dip switches to change loading.

Dear NKJ and thekong
NKJ - your observations line up with mine. +1 for the world best phono stage, or close to it.
I have worked with most of the other things you mention - tube choices, isolation , and I have dual power supplies. although not interconnect quality between the supplies and the Io.
thekong, agree the loading at the back is fiddly, didnt get it, how you adjust this with another cable.

Hi o_holter, sorry that I wasn’t clear on my description! Actually, there was no cable needed, I just got a pair of male XLR plugs, soldered a resistor of the required value to pin 2 and 3, then simply plugged them into the XLR phono input for loading. With this, you set the loading of the internal dip switch to 47K ohm, and use the XLR plug to adjust loading.

I also have another pair of male XLR plugs, to which I soldered alligator clips to pin 2 and 3, so I can easily change resistors for testing.

 

I hope this helps!

thekong - that was innovative! what load did you end up with (and for what cartridge)?