First Foray into XLR

For me the XLR was better than a RCA cable. First tried a XLR on a Oppo 95 and have never gone back to RCA. Lots of good XLR cables out there. Not sure what your budget is, but i would give High Fidelity Cables a try. They offer a 30 day trial period.

I’m not sure of the budget myself. I don’t want to spend so little there’s no chance of getting a benefit, and/or restricting the performance that’s available with the equipment I have. Somewhere comfortably below ‘diminishing returns’, if that’s possible?
thanks for the responses so far...

+1 re Mogami, specifically Mogami Gold Studio, which is the de facto cable of choice in many professional applications. And like a number of others here I’ve had fine results with it in various home applications at various lengths. And the price is certainly reasonable.

However, while I suspect that using XLR rather than RCA interconnections will make a difference, I suspect that the major contributor to the difference will not be the cable itself, but rather differences between the configurations of the XLR and RCA interface circuits in the two components. And the only way to know which one will sound better is to try them both.

Also, assuming you are using the stereo version of the amp I think it would be a good idea to contact Klaus at Odyssey and ask him what is meant by the word "bridged" in the website’s reference to the XLR input of the amp. Usually that term refers to a technique for configuring a stereo amp such that it can be used as a more powerful mono amp, which processes an input for just one channel. Evidently that is not what is meant here, but it would be good to know just what is meant, or if it is simply a mistake in the description.

Good luck. Regards,
--Al

Good point on the ‘bridged’ term. I suspect it’s supposed to read ‘balanced’, but that’s a guess. It was recommended to me by someone who doesn’t sell Odyssey (obviously), but is familiar, that i use the balanced connections as it’s a ‘true’ balanced design. FWIW

Use Mogami, Canare, and Belden cables in my small studio and all are quality XLRs. Prefer Belden for audiophile interconnects as it sounds brighter and more transparent. Mogami will suffice as well.
Again, if you visit Blue Jeans Cable you can read about the relative merits of various XLR types. Canare, for example, has more effective noise shielding than other cables -- but at a frequency cost. Gearslutz has threads devoted to cable topics and there you can find the pro studio perspective.
Have compared XLR to RCA connections in my systems and XLR wins handily -- you can distinguish the difference easily if the surrounding equipment (and especially the speakers) are high enough quality.