This may be a silly question, but setting up a system using a Chord Cutest DAC, that only has RCA unbalanced outputs, into a Musical Paradise MP-701 MK3 Tube Preamp, then balanced from the pre to a Parasound A21+ amp. Question is: if the connection from DAC to pre is unbalanced, does it matter going balanced from pre to amp? Is the signal already unbalanced from the DAC so might as well go unbalanced from pre to amp?
Unless you hear noise, I wouldn’t worry about it.
Is the output of the preamp true balanced or just an xlr connection provided for convenience?
True balanced.
I’ve used these in the past but using an RCA male to XLR male with the negative floating (pin 3 - not connected) should work fine,
Audio by Van Alstine also offers their DVA R2X SINGLE-ENDED TO DIFFERENTIAL CONVERTER
Pinetree Audio will also make you a very good one using Jensen transformers. I have one in both RCA to XLR and XLR to RCA.
The best I have ever heard is the Decware ZBIT.
MSB does a very, very good xlr-rca transformer based converter. With the benefit of being a passive device
It says on the product page that the Musical Paradise pre-amp “is based on single ended circuit. XLR is converted from RCA for convenience, so user can use existing XLR cables”
The advantage of balanced signal transmission is that it resists external radiated noise from polluting your signal. There are sonic costs to pay when converting between balanced and single-ended circuits. You generally want to avoid the conversions unless you know that they are preferable to the noise that you are otherwise suffering from your cable runs.
Curiously, your Parasound power amp appears to have a balanced (more specifically “differential”) input stage but a single-ended output stage. So no matter what you do, there’s going to be a conversion from single-ended to balanced as the signal goes from your pre-amp to your power-amp. It’s a question of which one does the better job and whether you get any benefit from the balanced cabling and what other sonic trade-offs you’re making with your investment into single-ended vs balanced cables (balanced are always more expensive for the same material quality).
This is probably one of those situations where you’re only going to learn by experimenting. If you can get some cables of the same make in both single and balanced configuration, compare them and see whether you can hear any difference which would justify the higher price of the balanced.