The Ayre P-5xe has the possibility to connect the cartridge balanced. I don't have this phono stage, but i am thinking of it. I am a big fan of MIT cables, so would like to connect a MIT phono cable balanced. Currently i use the Magnum M1 phono, but this will certainly be upgraded later on. The MIT phono cables have 2 conductors and a ground wire, i am not sure if the ground is connected to a shield, but that's likely.
Are there people here that have changed a XLR connector in such a way that the signal is connected to pins 2 and 3 and the shield (ground wire) to pin 1 on the Ayre phonostage?
The Ayre P-5xe has the possibility to connect the cartridge balanced. I don't have this phono stage, but i am thinking of it. I am a big fan of MIT cables, so would like to connect a MIT phono cable balanced. Currently i use the Magnum M1 phono, but this will certainly be upgraded later on. The MIT phono cables have 2 conductors and a ground wire, i am not sure if the ground is connected to a shield, but that's likely.
Are there people here that have changed a XLR connector in such a way that the signal is connected to pins 2 and 3 and the shield (ground wire) to pin 1 on the Ayre phonostage?
The Ayre P5xe has a trick. You can connect to the RCA inputs and feed the (-) signal to the differential amplifier by switching to balanced for a balanced input. I currently use the Ayre P5xe this way.
I'm currently researching phono stages but may not have the opportunity to demo them at home. I've taken a look at the Parasound JC 3 and the Ayre P-5xe...
forum.audiogon.com
"I had a VPI Aries II TT when I picked up the Ayre P-5x. I did indeed order a custom made phono cable that was configured per the Ayre link you provided. The RCA end plugged into the RCA termination block on the Aries and the other end had XLR connectors for the Ayre phono. Worked well. I still have the 1/2 meter cables.
I don't think VPI had a XLR term block at that time.
I then picked up a used Triplanar VII which had single ended RCA connectors on the built in phono cable. After a while I realized that I had never flipped the bal/se switches to the single ended position! When I did it sounded a tad worse so I left them in the balanced position.
I later converted the Triplanar phono cable to have XLR connectors thinking it might be better. Again I did not notice anything after that process.
Curious, I pinged Ayre's Charles Hansen on Audio Asylum and asked him what was going on. It was a while ago but iirc he said with the switches in the "bal" position the negative or inverted part of the RCA input used of course for unbalanced inputs was allowed to float thus the inverted signal from the cartridge made it to the inverted input of the diff amp.
Not the best way, but as long as the inverted signal in the cable is allowed to float, never grounded, it works because of his design."
Thanks Dan, this information is very helpful. Actually i hoped that it would be possible to float (disconnect from ground) the inverted signal from the RCA connector as you mentioned. Then i have a choice to connect the ground/shield cable to the P-5x(e) or the preamp. So no need for RCA/XLR adapter either, and it is likely that hum from ground loops (i found that this effect is larger with MIT cable compared to my earlier Nordost Valhalla's) is also lower. You made my day
For those that follow this thread; i bought a P-5xe a few weeks ago. It sounds great, just as expected. For now i have to use it single ended until i have the chance to get a KX-R so it can be used balanced. Will update my findings.
The good news is that the P-5xe is quiet and i have less hum now.
Another update since i had the luck finding some more items: the P-5xe benefits well from an Ayre L-5xe. This is unexpected, as the mains filtering in the P-5xe looks the same as the 4 filters inside the L-5xe.
Some months ago i also had the luck to find an as new Ayre DX-5 DSD, this player also benefits from the L-5xe, but that's for another thread.
The Ayre P-5xe has the possibility to connect the cartridge balanced. I don't have this phono stage, but i am thinking of it. I am a big fan of MIT cables, so would like to connect a MIT phono cable balanced. Currently i use the Magnum M1 phono, but this will certainly be upgraded later on. The MIT phono cables have 2 conductors and a ground wire, i am not sure if the ground is connected to a shield, but that's likely.
Are there people here that have changed a XLR connector in such a way that the signal is connected to pins 2 and 3 and the shield (ground wire) to pin 1 on the Ayre phonostage?
Welcome to the club . Yes i have the MI-350 Oracle proline interconnects and Magnum M1 speaker cable. As a matter of fact i have the Magnum M1 phono for sale as i'd like to upgrade to Oracle. But there is not much demand for it.
Next to that i have Oracle ZIII for amplifiers, Shotgun AC1 for disk player and Z-II for phono amp.
