In this article, we hope to demystify the pros and cons of balanced and single-ended analog audio cables for home stereo and home theater systems. All of you are probably familiar with the single ended type of audio cable with its typical RCA connector you see for home audio gear. You may have seen or read about balanced audio connectors. For home audio, these usually have what is called an XLR connector.

Balanced audio cables have been around in the professional and concert touring world for decades. The way a balanced system carries the signal has some big advantages for long cable runs. The XLR connectors are also very solid, and for pros dealing with hundreds of connections, their different male and female ends make it impossible to accidentally plug an output into an output and blow something up.

But are the more expensive balanced cables really better for home audio use? It turns out there is no clear answer, as it will depend on your gear and system layout. Let’s see why.

Audio cables are somewhat like putting an antenna up to collect noise. The longer they are, and the closer they are to something that can cause noise, the more likely it is they will pick up noise. Noise that can get into your cables is all around us and getting worse all the time. Noise could come from a piece of gear in your system, your wifi network gear if it is nearby, and now our air is blanketed with cell phone signals. You might hear noise picked up by your cables as hum, buzz, hash, or even a clicking sound. You may not even audibly notice it until it goes away and your system takes on a new level of quietness you didn't know existed.

An audio cable needs a positive signal conductor, a negative signal conductor, and a ground. If you look at an RCA cable, you will notice it only has two connection points: the center pin and the outer shield.

The positive signal flows down the center pin and the negative flows down the outer shield along with the ground. The hope is that the shield is good enough to reject noise, but that is not always the case.

Here is a visual of how the single-ended audio transmission system works and how noise can enter the cable and then be heard in your system.

Balanced audio transmission systems are quite a bit different. The XLR connector has three pins. As you might have guessed, one carries the positive signal, another carries the negative, and the third carries the ground. Now this alone would not make them better except for the fact some magic happens on the sending and receiving pieces of gear they are connected to.

The sending or transmitting piece of equipment will put the positive and negative signals out of phase with each other. The receiving end puts them back in phase, which means any noise the cable might have picked up is totally canceled out.

For touring professionals, this means they can use very long runs of cables and never have to worry about noise, even if they are running close to AC power cords. It is truly a lifesaver for those large sound systems you see at concerts.

But what about your home audio system? Is the extra cost of the balanced transmission and receiving system, along with the more expensive cables, really worth it?

Let’s look at some examples that might fit your system. If you have all of your gear relatively close to each other and make sure your power cables are far away or only cross the audio cables at a 90-degree angle you might be just fine with RCA connections. Make a note of the volume level that would be the loudest you would ever play your system. If you then set your system up to play at that level with nothing playing and do not hear any noise, you should be fine.

But not all of us have everything close together or can stay away from noise causing components. We have to say over the last few years we are seeing a lot of very audible noise being created by WiFi gear. We have seen mysterious noises completely go away when we move a wireless access point just a few feet further away from the gear.

Also, some of you might have a separate preamplifier and power amplifier you want to spread apart. Many times, it is advantageous to position your power amp close to your speakers to use short speaker cable, which results in a long audio cable run from the preamp. In this case, balanced audio cables can have a big benefit. The same might hold true for a subwoofer as well.

So it seems pretty straightforward, right? Well, there is one more twist. What about if you have everything close to each other, but most of your gear has balanced connections? Should you go to the expense of balanced cables? That will depend on the gear itself, as not all equipment with balanced connections is made the same way.

Just like your audio cables, your gear itself can pick up noise in the air. Some components with balanced connections only go as far as the transmission or receiving portion of the signal path. But others will be what you will see called fully balanced where the entire signal path inside the piece of gear is balanced to give you complete noise rejection. McIntosh is one brand that comes to mind that has been building their gear this way for a very long time. Their CD player, C12000 preamp, and MC462 power amp are all great examples of completely balanced audio components.

It's usually pretty easy to look at the marketing material for your gear and find out if it's fully balanced. If you find both pieces you want to connect together are fully balanced, in this case we do recommend you go that route.

But, for short runs, we do not think you should base your entire equipment purchase decision on whether or not the piece of gear offers balanced audio. There is some very good equipment out there that sounds fantastic that might outperform a fully balanced one in a system where noise is not being picked up.

We hope this overview of balanced versus single-ended audio connections has helped you better understand both technologies. The audio experts on our team would love to talk to you about the pros and cons of each for your system. If you have further questions about anything audio or video related, contact our experts via chat, phone, or email. Or simply visit one of our world-class showrooms to experience speakers, projectors, TVs, and everything in between for yourself before you make a purchase! When you buy from Audio Advice, we offer Free Shipping, Lifetime Expert Support, and our Price Guarantee. If you’ve enjoyed this video, please give it a like, hit the subscribe button, and turn on the notifications so you never miss any of our latest content. Thanks for watching, and we’ll see you next time!