That’s what I am afraid off but without paste it’s a real pain to make good factory like soldering job, especially when silver tin is involved.
XLR to RCA DIY Conversion
- Thread starter Uwiik
- Start date
Ok. Hope this makes sense:
Source end:
Twist together the inner and outer drains and solder together.
Now remove the foil ( or similar shield but I’m presuming there’s a foil shield) from the conductors, to expose one RED and one White conductor.
Carefully cut off 12mm ( my suggestion you may do more or less) of the white(?) insulation. To expose the inner conductor, peel back the strands( of solid core conductor) and cut off the white PVC (?) core. Twist and solder the strands.( you may have a solid core conductor in which case ignore that bit)
Cut off 7mm (my suggestion you may do more or less) of the Red insulation. Expose the inner multi-strand conductor, peel back the strands and cut off the whit plastic core. Twist and solder the strands.
Cut a 5mm approx length of Red heat shrink and shrink over the Red insulation.
Solder the centre pin to the Red conductor.
Wrap four or five wraps of PTFE tape over the soldered joint and down the insulation.
Wrap four or five wraps of PTFE tape over the outer insulation on to the drains.
The output end is the same as the source, with one difference. The outer drain is cut off in line with the outer insulation and is not connected to the shield.
Pin 2 is hot and pin 1 would be ground. Some tie Pin 3 to pin 1, yet some dual differential devices can Be damaged by shorting pin 3 and leave it floating. It depends.
I have some Cardas adapters that are designed with pin 3 floating. most XLR to RCA adapters short 1 & 3 together.
Depending on how the source xlr is configured ( so many variations on "balanced output" ) you might try a Jensen ( or similar ) xlr to rca adaptor that uses a transformer...can't say this will be better but the cable is saved and cost is low...and the longer part of the cable run will be terminated 'correctly' 
Yesterday my dealer loaned me Cardas adapter, I don think I can live with that ugliness… LOL, like I said, not too concerned about saving resale value, nothing have good resale value in HiFiDepending on how the source xlr is configured ( so many variations on "balanced output" ) you might try a Jensen ( or similar ) xlr to rca adaptor that uses a transformer...can't say this will be better but the cable is saved and cost is low...and the longer part of the cable run will be terminated 'correctly'
I just ran into this issue , I purchased a Cardas Clear XLR to RCA adapter pin 1&3 tied together. This made my system sound awful . How did you get adapters with pin 3 floating ? Special order ?
You can check Rane or other "pro" sound websites for suggestions.
Generally for a source XLR (output) to RCA load (input), I tie pin 1 (shield) to RCA shield (ground), pin 2 (positive output) to RCA tip (center, hot), and leave pin 3 (negative output) floating to prevent shorting the XLR output buffer to ground. It may be better to match the load resistance to ground on pin 3 (especially with transformer outputs -- check with your manufacturer); e.g. at the XLR add a resistor from pin 3 to ground equal to the load (input) resistance.
XLR 1 (shield) --> RCA shield
XLR 2 (positive) --> RCA tip
XLR 3 (negative) --> float (leave open) or connect to pin 1 with a resistor matching the load's input resistance
FWIWFM - Don
Generally for a source XLR (output) to RCA load (input), I tie pin 1 (shield) to RCA shield (ground), pin 2 (positive output) to RCA tip (center, hot), and leave pin 3 (negative output) floating to prevent shorting the XLR output buffer to ground. It may be better to match the load resistance to ground on pin 3 (especially with transformer outputs -- check with your manufacturer); e.g. at the XLR add a resistor from pin 3 to ground equal to the load (input) resistance.
XLR 1 (shield) --> RCA shield
XLR 2 (positive) --> RCA tip
XLR 3 (negative) --> float (leave open) or connect to pin 1 with a resistor matching the load's input resistance
FWIWFM - Don
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Yes, that is the correct approach. If the user wants to preserve the common mode rejection ratio of the balanced connection, using a transformer on the receiving end is advantageous. Personally, I think RCA connectors are the worst type of connection one can imagine. I have a collection of input transformers ripped from old Neve mixing desks and these are really excellent sounding. I use them for my Nagra IV-S, since the output of the recorder is unbalanced.
This is what I do for balanced sources going into single ended preamps/integrated amps. IMO using a resistor with the same value as the component's input impedance is the best solution, but also makes the cable specialized for that particular application. Of course the resistor or plugs can be changed later as well.
Of course @adrianywu is correct that a trafo would give you the noise rejection of a balanced connection, but imo, in a home environment it's rarely needed, and adding a good trafo is not trivial. Many times it's added as a separate component which introduces more connectors, wire, another cable, etc. I think this is not an elegant solution and I don't like it, you use a RCA cable anyways. The only great solution to this is to add a trafo-based input to the component it's self, placing the trafo inside the chassis, most will not want to modify their gear or spend big-$ on the very high quality trafo required.
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You could also add an XLR jack to your SE amp that grounds pin1 to pin3 via a resistor with the same value as the amp's input impedance, wiring can be directly connected to where the RCA input goes as long as you don't have both RCA and XLR connected at the same time. Basically, a built-in converter that loads the - leg of the XLR in the same as the + leg.
I'm using Shunyata Sigma NR XLR cables
Lampizator Horizon > VAC Master > Lampizator GM Monoblock
Otherwise I use Constellation Bal
The VAC has a switch on every input and output SE/Bal but I don't know exactly what switch is doing
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