Balanced XLR to RCA Adapters: Good or Bad?

Dear R1g audio, A phono cartridge is an inherently balanced transducer that can potentially drive a phono stage in balanced mode. However, if said phono stage is not also a true balanced device, then there is no way to take advantage of the potential of a cartridge to drive it in balanced mode. No matter how you connect that cartridge to that single-ended preamp, the signal will be processed in SE mode. XLRs on the end of the phono cable and XLRs on the phono input of the phono stage will not do squat to change these facts. Ergo, the OP loses nothing by re-terminating his phono cable with RCAs. Further, while I agree that the OP's system is not likely to be terribly sensitive to the non-purist approach of using XLR to RCA adapters, I would side with Doug; why put a totally unnecessary kludge in the signal path when it can so easily be avoided? (Adapters suck, IMO._

I would guess that the OP could find a tech who can re-terminate his phono cables for about the same cost as that of an XLR to RCA adaptor.

Im using Cardas xlr to rca very good none is better.

Those do look nice, but I found a price of $120 from Handmade Audio (hopefully, that is price per pair). Which supports my point that the OP could have his cables converted for less, I think. Also, I don't see where Cardas makes male XLR to male RCA adapter. The ones I found all terminate in female RCA, so I think they are for persons who want to mate a male RCA to a female (or male) XLR. Would not work for OP. Probably I did not do enough searching. I have a hangover anyway.

Go with the adapters. They'll give you the flexibility that you may need for upgrading to a balanced system later, w/o much of a dropoff in performance now.

Cardas can be found many places for under $75.

http://www.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?accstwek&1330313307&/Cardas-Adapters-XLR-to-Rca---t

When I used adapters, it was clearly evident that the sound suffered...your system may be different.