Gain on Balanced Connections too high for very efficient speakers???

[Chris D]

Wow... I just heard that someone with Klipsch speakers was getting a steady low volume hiss of them when driven by Halo amps and a C1/2 processor. Apparently Parasound said the gain on the balanced connections was higher than the non-balanced RCA, and suggested that for highly efficient speakers like Klipsch, unbalanced RCA connectors should be used.

I also have an entire Klipsch system... I haven't completed my connections yet, but this issue sounds a bit disappointing. Obviously I'll do what it takes to prevent or eliminate any background noise, including speaker hiss. But one of the reasons I went with the Parasound was the high-end balanced connections that are supposed to be more stable and ELIMINATE noise, not create or amplify it.

Thoughts?




CHRIS
Luke: "Hey, I'm not such a bad pilot myself, you know"

[nicholtl]

Not to worry Chris, I too run RF-7 speakers all around with balanced XLR's from my C2 to my A51 and A21, and there is not a peep. There is a very very faint hiss in badly recorded cd's, and if and ONLY if I press my ear up against the speaker grill, can I hear a hiss. In other words, under 99.999999% of circumstances you will not hear anything. You can only hear a hiss if you physically TRY to hear it, and it is only when you are in an absurd distance - or lack thereof - from your speakers.

[Chris D]

Nicholt, glad to hear that it's working for you with your Reference Klipsch set and balanced cables. I definitely want to use balanced. HOWEVER, since I don't have any balanced cables now, I don't want to buy a whole set of 7 for connecting the C1, A51, and A21, only to hear the hiss, not be completely satisfied, and have to scrap the cables to go with unbalanced RCA's.

I don't know of any local friends that have balanced cables I could try out first, either. I guess I could go to a local guitar center and buy some super cheap XLR cables to try out the balanced connections first. But then if there were to be any hiss I'd wonder of course if it was the cheap cables.

You mentioned elsewhere that even if you do have hiss, you are going to stick with the balanced cables for the other benefits. I'm curious--what benefits do you get other than noise reduction? (which would already be compromised)




CHRIS
Luke: "Hey, I'm not such a bad pilot myself, you know"

[nicholtl]

You mentioned elsewhere that even if you do have hiss, you are going to stick with the balanced cables for the other benefits. I'm curious--what benefits do you get other than noise reduction? (which would already be compromised)

I guess only the EMI rejection, and the satisfaction that I am running balanced. Not really a huge deal, and I'm no technical genius so I can't really state what the technical benefits are - but I do know that only higher end seperates contain XLR inputs. I figure I might as well use the high-end feature. =)

[Scarp]

XLR is generally used in the music business and studio's, mainly because they can run long lengths of those cables without the introduction of noise.

The Parasound manuals describe XLR quite good.