What would be the effect of using an RCA out / Balanced in connection to my M700? I’m buy some interconnects and have the option of different connection types, on each end. My Anthem preamp does not have balanced out. Thoughts?
My uneducated guess would be no in your case. The source is no balanced so it would probably be no different than running a good set of RCA’s.
IMHO, RCA to XLR will not make the singal “balance”. I recall reading somewhere that, a short cable, RCA vs Balanced XLR doesn’t make noticeable difference. For long cable, balanced XLR has advantage.
My SGCD to M700s is on balanced XLR, although, the distance is short, the XLR cable seems much affordable (i.e. cheaper), than a decent single-end RCA cable.
I recall that Paul did a video on this.
If the output from the preamp is RCA, then use RCA output on your preamp and RCA in on the M700.
If you had a preamp with balanced (XLR), then would strongly recommend using XLR from pre to M700.
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RCA to XLR would cause problems, mostly with signal level. Balanced signals via XLR have twice the voltage of single ended RCA outputs. You would be cutting the volume in half. A balanced signal is essentially two identical signals carried on the cable with opposite polarities to cancel noise once they get to their endpoint. RCA cables only carry one signal, or half of a balanced signal.