If it has XLR, use it

If your equipment has balanced XLR connections, use them. Not as a tweak, as a rule. Of everything dozens of interconnects taught me, this is one of the most important lessons.

The difference is not subtle. XLR gave me a blacker background, better noise rejection and more dynamic punch than RCA, most likely because the connection carries a higher voltage. Interconnects carry low-level signals that are vulnerable to interference, and the best thing a cable can do there is stay out of the way.

Let me be practical. People spend weeks arguing about which brand of RCA cable to buy while the balanced sockets sit unused on the back of the same amplifier. In many cases the choice of XLR could matter more than the brand on the cable. The connection is the first decision and the brand is the second.

It has been in my chain from the start of my McIntosh years: the first time I heard my MA9500, the Eversolo was feeding it over balanced cables. In my order of audible impact, speaker cables come first and analogue interconnects second, so this is not a minor position in the system.

Before you upgrade the cable, upgrade the connection. You may have paid for it already.