[chgolatin2]

Dont mean to sound silly but I just got the Azur 840C Cd player.  Whats the difference between the inputs for balance and unbalance (XLR outputs)??

[pearsall001]

Boy, that's a tough one. There's two separate camps on this...some say the XLR makes a world of difference & the other camp says there's no difference.

Since I also own the 840C (incredible by the way, you're going to love it). My two channel system (Krell amp, Krell pre & the 840C) are all hooked up with balanced (XLR) cables. To my ears there was a very noticable difference in sound quality with the XLR vs single ended. And I mean quite noticable...for the better I might add. I can only suggest that you try the 840C both ways & hear for yourself. If all your other gear is balanced, then it's a no-brainer. Let your ears be the judge. 

[Toka]

Assuming the player is fully/"true" balanced (I don't know either way), it will have the benefit of noise immunity with long cable runs (this is why balanced operation was designed in the first place). In short runs, or in cases where only a phase splitter is used (or worse), there is no benefit (outside of a frequent voltage boost, which will make it sound 'louder' if levels are not matched). The Azur is a great player, in either case.

[sbrtoy]

To mirror the last post, balanced operation sometimes does sound significantly better, but this is often due to the implementation and quality of circuit more than the connection itself.  Some gear like Pass labs is really engineered to be run balanced but has single-ended connections for convenience, others the balanced connections are just add-ons, in many cases they are just single-ended runs inside the equipment. 

[navi]

In my old system that ran in balanced mode (CD player to pre-amp to active speakers) I found that it sounded more dynamic and open compared to the dull sounds of single ended/RCAs (this was tested with the same cable one with XLR and other with RCA)......... or was it slightly louder?


I miss it very much.

[Toka]

To mirror the last post, balanced operation sometimes does sound significantly better, but this is often due to the implementation and quality of circuit more than the connection itself. 

Yep!  I guess the 'real' answer is "it depends".