The great myth of the XlR

I knew i was not the first to notice this.

Again i must state that with a truly balanced design like ayre using xlr is most duffently the way to go.

Now my tact amp is indeed a truly balnced design (if i read it right) but my slimdevices transporter is not.

I think il just have to try for my self.

Hi bigtee

Very interresting discussion we have here .

I agree that a bad recording should sound bad if a system is neutral, problem is many times its the system that destroys the pitch and timing in the music or just soound so over analytical that the music just happen to sound faulted where it really is the system thats doing crime.

I had the full lyngdorf audio roomperfect system with 2 tda2200 digital amps 4 speakers and roomperfect roomcorrection.
With that system only handfull cds sounded great rest sounded like crab lyngdorf audio will say its just because its neutral but its the other way around the system is digitaly colourd and some cds just dont show that tendeci that much.
When it got the top line millennium mk3 that is just simply a better amp then the tdas and everything sounded simply better and this amps is suppose to be eveen more neutral.

Speaking of neutral.
Most good systems sounds different with different cds because the dont colour the music.
MY frinds top notch linn klimax system takes this much futher here within the individuel track the sound changes.
You can listend to a track and then suddenly it changes pace or shifts down to a much much deeper frq or the soundstage widens if the music demands it its like there is no compression at all.
This must be what is called neutrality.

I agree that standing infront of a big stage and here Pink Floyd live with a cold one in you hand is in some ways the ultimat goal to reproduce.
But this can never happen i think and we can only mimic it to some extend.

What i mean when i say that you can exceed the real thing , is that with carefull setup and carefull selected components you can experince somthing different then live music a new preception of the music.

When i started out in hifi i listend to lost of different system wilson ,jamlab audioresearch, rotel and many others, and none excited me much it all sounded like a more detajled versions of my littel dennon system .
then one day i wheny into a shop and actuined the sonus faber cremona with linn chakra gear.
The room was around 40 sq meters and it was a very good acousticly speaking with tall seeling and hard wood floor and the speakers was set up just right.
Then i experincs a audio epiffany .
And that made me fall in love with this hoppy and sonus faber speakers.

it sure diddent sound like live music but it sounded like a dream where the speakers had a singing angle like voice.
There are really no words that can describe what i heard that day.
It was transending, and in my oppinion it was better then the real thing, or at least as good as hearing it live in person.

regards

I know what the original poster is referring to although I would describe it a bit differently. Single ended (unbalanced) systems sound softer, rounder, lower-res, and therefore friendlier. That can translate to being "more musical" in some cases if running those same components in balanced mode is too revealing of limitations of the equipment's parts quality, circuit quality, etc...

I have purposely run some more affordable solid state systems unbalanced even though they are truly differential circuits with XLR connectivity because I wanted to tame brightness, grain or harshness. But with our very best vacuum tube gear, running balanced reveals more detail, a lower noise floor, better dynamic contrast and yes, more musicality with no downside.

Sounds_real_audio: "I have yet to find a balanced set up that conveys the music and emotion."

If true, I guess the question then is how recording studios manage to record anything of value. Their places are chock-full of balanced cables.

I'm sure your electronics are very good and frankly it is silly to try and use balanced cabling on equipment that is not designed for it in the first place. Alternatively, if you're comparing your setup to different equipment, there are way too many other variables in that situation to blame everything on a pair of wires.

Frankly there is rarely any legit need for balanced cabling in a home environment, but it is a bit of a fad in the high-end market these days.

However, I find it sad when a subject like this ends up with people making rather nonsensical, prejorative statements to defend their preferences.

Simply put, balanced cabling serves a specific purpose. Many aspects of the professional audio world simply wouldn't work very well without it. Be grateful that it is there for the people who need it and don't worry about it if it doesn't float your boat.

Bigtee,

You're absolutely right. A good system MUST have the ability to sound absolutely horrible. My epiphany regarding this came when I listened to a live Peter Green era Fleetwood Mac album my friend brought over. I thought it sounded like a bad recording until it hit me that it sounded EXACTLY like a typical (lousy) rock PA system from the sixties.
As to your comments about neutrality, I can only say amen! If it ain't neutral, it ain't high fidelity (anybody remember what that means besides me, you and some of my friends?). Instruments should sound like themselves, not like what you wish they sounded like.