Wiring unbalanced with XLR instead of RCA

[OllBoll]

Hello there!

I've thought some of instead of using standard RCA for unbalanced to use an XLR-cable:

Cable shield --> chassi ground
Positive --> hot signal
Negative --> signal ground

Why I've thought about doing this? I like the lockable XLR connector, have lots of XLR cables and less RCA ones... and shouldn't separating cable shield from signal ground prevent noise better? Or would there be no performance advantage to doing this than standard RCA?

Before I try I thought I might as well ask here to see if this would be a bad idea first

// Olle

[AndrewT]

Good idea.

Separating the mains induced ground currents via pin2 from the signal return current in pin3 must have an advantage.

But, you must be sure that the extra Pin2 route does not introduce a ground loop that would not be there, if only Pin1 & 3 were used in the interconnect.

There are more than a few threads discussing this. Jensen & Rain & Self and others have published numerous papers on what not to do while interconnecting mains powered equipment.
Reading up on these may find the answers you want.
But first, read
Audio Component Grounding and Interconnection - diyAudio

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