balance and single ended what I heard

maybe thats it,maybe the outputs aren't truly balanced, I guess I will call Mac and see what they say...at the very least I would have figured they would sound about the same if that were true, but like you said above there aren't any absolutes

Balanced interfaces is a different subject than complementary circuit topography. There is nothing wrong with generating a balanced line output interface out of non-complementary circuitry so as to exploit the merits of that kind of interface. The suggestion that such a design is almost deceitful is absurd.

The best known example of complementary circuitry is the push-pull power amp output stage, and there is a small army of people saying that single ended is better. But that is the subject of a different thread.

hey lemme@lone,what a pure crap response,this is the 2nd thread in recent weeks where an arogant response was left about a guys gear.

people put alot of time & cash not to mention heart & soul into their rigs & im quite sure that kinda response was not warranted.

mike.

superhonestben,i liked the mc252 so much that i went ahead & bought a 2nd mc252 & im running them as monoblocks with the c2200 preamp.

your thread got me wondering so i tried balanced against the rca inputs,there was a huge difference but my experience was the exact oposite,the xlr's not only produced a better & cleaner overall sound but my overall volume increased too with the xlr's.

the volume wasnt just increased either the xlr's raised the level where the amps began to klip,im leaving mine hooked up with xlr's from now on & im using cheapie xlr's too.

i wonder if eldartford called it right & there isnt somthing going on with your interconnects,a cheap way to try another set of xlr's is to go to your local guitar center & pick up a set,usually around $15 or $20 for a 3ft pair.

BTW,i love the mc252 c2200 combo,i went from a mc500 to running the 2 mc252's as monoblock's & im extremly satisfied as they are very musical amps with big balls too!

mike.

It looks like you have tried only the Monsters in the XLR balanced configuration. Quality of connectors and the care taken in the soldering process are also important factors in the audio fidelity of the cable. Perhaps Monster doesn't use a quality connector or doesn't have their soldering process up to the same standard as on their RCA terminations. Or maybe you just got a bad set of cables (?)

The other explanations about a truly balanced circuit vs. a "quasi-balanced circuit", as others have posted, also applies.