Balanced tonearm cable

Atmasphere said:

OK. From the diagram and photos above, the tonearm cable seems OK. I'm thinking the problem is the phono preamp.

If the phono preamp is really balanced and if it also has RCA inputs that work, and also if the balanced input is properly designed, then if one wire were disconnected from either pin 2 or 3 of the XLR, in balanced mode the phono section would not play on that channel. So I think this is worth checking.

Click to expand...

I bought the unbalanced cable ( https://www.audiophonics.fr/fr/cabl...-femelle-5-broches-2-rca-noir-15m-p-4721.html) because the unbalanced connection is working on my turntable and the preamp.

I still have the "bad/defective" balanced cable that I am planning to fix. I have no idea when I will fix it. I also have to solder 4 Grado headphones. The Grado job has priority.

I am pretty impressed by the unbalanced phono cable! It seems to be worth to invest a bit money into a new phono cable. I have not yet repaired the defective balanced cable.

That's how it is with single-ended cables: often you can spend more and get better results (although not all the time). When you go balanced then you get off of the cable game since if the cable is properly built it will simply be correct and no expenditure will yield better results.

If ever there was an argument for balanced operation, getting the cable correct at the signal source has to be it. You can't make up for coloration and losses downstream no matter how good your preamp, amps and speakers are.