Questions on cables

oracle1974

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Hi

Can somebody explain:

Are XLR cables different from the RCA cables in their construct or they are just different in their terminations ?

If not, can I change the RCA terminations to XLR terminations and use the cable with changed terminations to benefit from balanced audio configuration that my system allows?

Thanking you in anticipation.
 
Somebody like Joshua can chime in better but they are fundamentally different as an XLR cable has 3 wires..one ground and 2 signal ie a positive signal and a -ve signal while RCA has only 1 signal and one ground.

You do have converters to change from one to the other hence may not need to change the termination and just use an adaptor
 
They are not the same. There is a old thread about this. DO check it out.
 
Hi

Can somebody explain:

Are XLR cables different from the RCA cables in their construct or they are just different in their terminations ?

If not, can I change the RCA terminations to XLR terminations and use the cable with changed terminations to benefit from balanced audio configuration that my system allows?

Thanking you in anticipation.

That is not possible because in rca there is one signal(and one earth) wire while in xlr, there are two signal wires(and one earth) one in inverted phase though. That is why xlr has higher gain.
 
XLR carry two signals per channel, so fully balanced amps and preamps will have 4 individual amp circuits instead of 2 in single ended rca. To fully use XLR benefits, you must use end to end balanced equipment so that all 4 amps are utilised.
 
I don't remember which video it was, which i had seen but it explained that the two signal wires carry in phase and out of phase signal and anything not matching gets cancelled , this eliminating noise
I would have understood it wrong so let someone verify but it was made to understand in layman terms.
What it does in theory and what it does actually might differ but as @firearm12 posted best to use real balanced equipment through out the chain to have best results
 
I don't remember which video it was, which i had seen but it explained that the two signal wires carry in phase and out of phase signal and anything not matching gets cancelled , this eliminating noise
I would have understood it wrong so let someone verify but it was made to understand in layman terms.
What it does in theory and what it does actually might differ but as @firearm12 posted best to use real balanced equipment through out the chain to have best results
If the system is balanced all throughout the chain, the need to add a power conditioner will not be there. Just a surge protector would be sufficient. Is this conclusion correct?
 
If the system is balanced all throughout the chain, the need to add a power conditioner will not be there. Just a surge protector would be sufficient. Is this conclusion correct?


Never had a fully balanced system so I am not qualified to answer it.
Infact never thought on these lines but I would also be interested to know.
 
I don't remember which video it was, which i had seen but it explained that the two signal wires carry in phase and out of phase signal and anything not matching gets cancelled , this eliminating noise
I would have understood it wrong so let someone verify but it was made to understand in layman terms.
What it does in theory and what it does actually might differ but as @firearm12 posted best to use real balanced equipment through out the chain to have best results

yes if you use balanced, it’s best to use balanced through, . The reason is that if you run rca to XLR say from your preamp to amp, your amp will run at half power only as only one amp circuit per channel will be activated ( rca can only give carry one signal per channel) and so 2 out of 4 amps will sit idle. also proper XLR connection will carry second signal in inverted phase so that at the destination the common noise on both signals can be cancelled out. If you use xlr to rca or rca to xlr its useless.

check out https://www.chord.co.uk/xlr-vs-rca/ for basic description, just because the equipment has xlr also doesn’t mean it’s fully balanced, better to ask the manufacturer.
 
Somebody like Joshua can chime in better but they are fundamentally different as an XLR cable has 3 wires..one ground and 2 signal ie a positive signal and a -ve signal while RCA has only 1 signal and one ground.

You do have converters to change from one to the other hence may not need to change the termination and just use an adaptor
But using an adaptor on a RCA terminated cable to use it as a XLR cable will not change the nature of the cable and hence the utility of the using an XLR input will not be served. Is this thinking correct?
 
yes if you use balanced, it’s best to use balanced through, . The reason is that if you run rca to XLR say from your preamp to amp, your amp will run at half power only as only one amp circuit per channel will be activated ( rca can only give carry one signal per channel) and so 2 out of 4 amps will sit idle. also proper XLR connection will carry second signal in inverted phase so that at the destination the common noise on both signals can be cancelled out. If you use xlr to rca or rca to xlr its useless.


Okay I stand corrected in my previous post.
Basically so anything in common with both signals (in phase and out of phase) , it will get cancelled
Correct?
 
But using an adaptor on a RCA terminated cable to use it as a XLR cable will not change the nature of the cable and hence the utility of the using an XLR input will not be served. Is this thinking correct?

That's correct
Adaptwe serves for convenience as there are cases when either preamp or power amp have only balanced inputs or outputs
 
I do not understand why one fails to get "to the point" answers to simply raised questions here.

Are XLR cables different from the RCA cables in their construct or they are just different in their terminations ?
Construct: XLR *wire* needs 3 distinct (insulated from each other) conductors at the least. *Wire* used for RCA just needs 2 at the least. *Wire* used for RCA may also have more than 2 distinct conductors - depends on geometry or design goals; the same as *wire* for XLR may have more than 3.
If not, can I change the RCA terminations to XLR terminations and use the cable with changed terminations to benefit from balanced audio configuration that my system allows?
You can use the *wire* used for your RCA in XLR
---IF---
your RCA *wire* has 3 distinct conductors - typically a twisted pair and a shield.
 
My bad.
I did not know properly how balanced is made.
Should have waited for someone to reply in correct way

Request mods to delete my posts as the information provided is not even correct, and one directly reads Keith's post

@Nikhil @captrajesh
 
Last edited:
Okay I stand corrected in my previous post.
Basically so anything in common with both signals (in phase and out of phase) , it will get cancelled
Correct?

yes electrical noise enters both hot and cold pins equally. As original audio signal is inverted in one wire at source, and then inverted again at destination for use, the noise also gets inverted and when the inverted noise is combined with the original noise, they cancel each other out.
 
I do not understand why one fails to get "to the point" answers to simply raised questions here.


Construct: XLR *wire* needs 3 distinct (insulated from each other) conductors at the least. *Wire* used for RCA just needs 2 at the least. *Wire* used for RCA may also have more than 2 distinct conductors - depends on geometry or design goals; the same as *wire* for XLR may have more than 3.

You can use the *wire* used for your RCA in XLR
---IF---
your RCA *wire* has 3 distinct conductors - typically a twisted pair and a shield.

looks like everyone missed the point. :oops: Audiophile brain is indeed hardwired to take some questions for granted
 
A few xlr cables use only 2 wires. They connect positive and negative. They skip ground. Cancellation still happens because positive and negative are connected. Connecting all 3 wires is ideal. But you can still try with 2 and see what happens. But when using 2, don’t connect ground
 
But using an adaptor on a RCA terminated cable to use it as a XLR cable will not change the nature of the cable and hence the utility of the using an XLR input will not be served. Is this thinking correct?

this is correct. The adapter will not change the nature of cable. It will connect ground and one hot or one cold pin only. never should use that. Get a proper balanced cable.
 
In terms of terminology, the term cable is use to denote a particular configuration of wires ( single conductor) . So the XLR and RCA cable will always be different although they could be using the same wire or have some wires which are the same ( since the ground could be different)

I do not remember this but I believe XLR does have some minimum size as part of specs.
 
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