Single ended to balanced conversion....

[Spectral Morn]

I've used RCA-XLR adaptors with no issue in the past and I had some XLR/RCA cables at one point as well ... either way you should be fine. Personally, I'd have some cables made up (I'm sure Paul at RFC could help you there).

As well as single ended all round I have balanced outputs available on my AN DAC (4.1x fancy balanced transformer output), balanced inputs and outputs on my EAR 912, and balanced inputs on my Radford STA100. So I could in theory use balanced all round and have tried things that way. However I hear precisely no improvement from balanced wiring. I can see the point in a studio over metres and metres of distance, but not over 1m cables in a domestic setting.

Deep breath and relax.

Lower noise floor, which benefits everything if the two items being connected are genuine balanced designs. You can't hear it, I and others can. As they say other folks mileage will vary.

[farflungstar]

I've used RCA-XLR adaptors with no issue in the past and I had some XLR/RCA cables at one point as well ... either way you should be fine. Personally, I'd have some cables made up (I'm sure Paul at RFC could help you there).

As well as single ended all round I have balanced outputs available on my AN DAC (4.1x fancy balanced transformer output), balanced inputs and outputs on my EAR 912, and balanced inputs on my Radford STA100. So I could in theory use balanced all round and have tried things that way. However I hear precisely no improvement from balanced wiring. I can see the point in a studio over metres and metres of distance, but not over 1m cables in a domestic setting.

Deep breath and relax.

That's almost exactly what the maker of the Truth said Tom.

[montesquieu]

The only other thing to bear in mind when feeding a balanced amplifier from an unbalanced source (preamp), is the sensitivity of the amplifier will be halved.

Having said all the rest, Adey's Truth is (as I understand it) some kind of LDR attenuated buffer device with no gain. Since the Vida isn't a gain monster either this **might** be an issue. Hard to tell in advance.

[farflungstar]

Having said all the rest, Adey's Truth is (as I understand it) some kind of LDR attenuated buffer device with no gain. Since the Vida isn't a gain monster either this **might** be an issue. Hard to tell in advance.

Yes I've thought about that but Ed, the maker of the Truth says it won't be a problem. I'm truly hoping not as I cannot imagine in a million years changing the Truth, it would be a retrograde step no matter what preamp.

[farflungstar]

What would the effect of halving the amps input sensitivity be in real terms? I'm assuming it would be more difficult to drive to high levels?

[Pharos]

Yes, as dealt with previously, the main benefits of the balanced approach are for broadcasters and studio setup engineers when assembling different combinations of equipment, which they do frequently, they not having to worry about hum problems with long leads.

In our case we setup and leave, mostly.

I think the cable method is neater, and not hard to do, and with fewer interfaces.

[RothwellAudio]

Lower noise floor, which benefits everything if the two items being connected are genuine balanced designs. You can't hear it, I and others can. As they say other folks mileage will vary.

Balanced connections don't have inherently lower noise - in fact they can be noisier.

[moodybuilder]

im using psuedo balanced cables as my pre amp is balanced and my monos are single ended, with good results and no hum,

[RothwellAudio]

im using psuedo balanced cables as my pre amp is balanced and my monos are single ended, with good results and no hum,

With a single-ended source and a balanced destination you can run a psuedo-balanced line, but not the other way round. The power amps are single-ended, what can possibly be balanced about line?
Of course, you can connect the two together and get no hum, but there's nothing balanced - or psuedo-balanced - about it.

[moodybuilder]

sorry trying to do to many things at once, i ment single ended pre and balanced mono amps