XLR and RCA source

I have just bought a CD player come with XLR and RCA output. My amp have only RCA input. I'm using the RCA output. Will there be any improvement if I will to use the XLR output. I do not have XLR-RCA cable to test out. Anyone can comment on this.

I would not necessarily say it will improve the sound but it will sound different. However, if your amp does not have XLR input, then there is no point you try to connect your CDP using XLR to RCA cable.

just use the rca from cd player to amp.
you will get the best performance from xlr cables if both the cd player and amp are truly balanced.
most are pseudo balanced, but there are still some benefits.
but there's not much point using rca to xlr interconnects.

This is how balanced audio works: 3 pin XLR has a ground, a signal ("hot"), and a phase inverted signal ("cold"). The idea is that any noise common to hot and cold will be cancelled out when the signal is recombined at the destination.

However, balanced audio is not just cable. Equipment has to be balanced also. A REAL balanced piece of equipment (say, a preamp) has to have four channels of volume control - left hot, left cold, right hot, and right cold. In other words, it has double the circuitry. Some CD players are also true balanced, e.g. the Cary CD306 has four DAC's per channel - two are DSD, two are PCM. And one DAC each for hot and cold. Some phono preamps are also true balanced - e.g. the Einstein phono preamp comes in single ended and balanced versions. The balanced version is simply two single ended preamps, but reconfigured for balanced. It sells for twice the price.

Equipment which is NOT true balanced only has single ended circuitry inside. It receives an XLR signal, compares hot and cold, and generates a single ended signal. It then processes the signal and sends it to a phase splitter which recreates the hot and cold signal.

In other words - if you use XLR on equipment which is single ended, your signal will see more circuitry. The RCA signal does not have to go through the extra circuitry (phase splitter, etc) so the circuit is more simple. Ideally, XLR should be used in a system in which every piece of equipment starting from the source to the power amp is balanced.

So what are the benefits of XLR? Mostly noise rejection if you are running very long interconnect. Otherwise, you are paying more for the cable, more for the equipment, and all for negligible benefit.

Summary: stick with RCA unless you are running long interconnects.

Elhefe, Sflam. Thank you for the advise and explanation.

WongKK.
Really appreciate spending yr time to elaborate in details. Your explanation do make sense cos the cd I bought is Tascam(second hand) Cd-501, normally use for sound stage which require long interconnect. It's have 2 PCM DAC. Bought very cheap at my company, less than RM100 just to play around. Like the tray mechanism, sound like a machinery.
Overall, the sound is not that great but can't complain for RM100.
Will look for old XLR plug for experiment.

If you are connecting your transport to your DAC, by far the best connection to use is AES/EBU (i.e. XLR). Digital signals are very susceptible to noise.

WongKK wrote:If you are connecting your transport to your DAC, by far the best connection to use is AES/EBU (i.e. XLR). Digital signals are very susceptible to noise.

Pardon for my lack knowledge on this. You mean i can opt to have external DAC and feed by the cd XLR output?

If your CD player has digital outputs, and if one of the digital outputs is AES/EBU (i.e. XLR), then you can use it to feed your DAC. Provided of course, your DAC has AES/EBU inputs.

It's old CD player. Don't think they have digital output.
It's great for your tips and explanation. Thank you and good night to you.

WongKK wrote:If you are connecting your transport to your DAC, by far the best connection to use is AES/EBU (i.e. XLR). Digital signals are very susceptible to noise.

I completely agree. I use that between my CDT and DAC. It gave a lot of different.