Bartók's best connection to a Naim NAC 282 Preamp

[PAR (Pete)]

@Simon_C

I don’t have any experience of the ATC pre-amp. A glance - and it was only a glance - at the manual and a Hi-Fi News review did not turn up anything to suggest that the amp has balanced circuitry all the way through. If that is the case, perhaps it explains why the RCA connection sounds better. It would actually be the more ‘direct’ of the two types of connection.

It is indeed balanced all the way through.

However when using a dCS DAC one for such a comparison it is not just comparing some kind of conceptually ideal XLR connection with a conceptually ideal RCA one. Unlike most products offering RCA and XLR outputs dCS do not simply use one half of the same output circuitry for RCA ( which is why the specified output voltage is exactly half that of the balanced XLR output). dCS DACs actually use different specially designed output circuits for RCA or XLR.

I would not say that RCA sounds better than XLR or that XLR sounds better than RCA ( though balanced will have better noise performance). I would, however, agree that individuals may express a preference for one over the other. So it is with just about every aspect of audio.