Question about using Burmester RCA to XLR adapters and phase ...

[joeinid]

I do not know for sure, but does anyone know if using the Burmester RCA to XLR adapters still reverses phase. The normal XLR inputs are pin 2 negative and will be out of phase with non Burmester XLR inputs so speaker cables are usually reversed at the speaker terminals to compensate for this reversal. I don't know if RCA inputs are affected in the same way.

I am going to try the GAT first with the new 911mk3's. The GAT inverts phase and I wonder if I should just hook everything up normally hoping I hit it right.

Any thoughts are deeply appreciated.

[Rocco]

Hi Joe.

With RCA you should not have any kind of problem about the phase. But with a listening test you can verify it.

P.S.: Using Burmester components with RCA you go agaist with Burmester's concept because Burmester gears are fully balanced.

[joeinid]

Originally Posted by Rocco

Hi Joe.

With RCA you should not have any kind of problem about the phase. But with a listening test you can verify it.

P.S.: Using Burmester components with RCA you go agaist with Burmester's concept because Burmester gears are fully balanced.

Thanks Rocco.

I know about going against the conventional wisdom, I just want to play around.

[Rayooo]

Originally Posted by joeinid

I do not know for sure, but does anyone know if using the Burmester RCA to XLR adapters still reverses phase. The normal XLR inputs are pin 2 negative and will be out of phase with non Burmester XLR inputs so speaker cables are usually reversed at the speaker terminals to compensate for this reversal. I don't know if RCA inputs are affected in the same way.

I am going to try the GAT first with the new 911mk3's. The GAT inverts phase and I wonder if I should just hook everything up normally hoping I hit it right.

Any thoughts are deeply appreciated.

Hi Joe, do you know what they use for the actual unbalanced to balanced conversion? if those big Burmester's are balanced throughout, they might use a transformer, in which case, they would surely preserve phase through the transformer, and then assuming the amps are non-inverting, you'd still hook the speakers up backwards to compensate for the GAT. Sorry for all the guessing on my part, it'll be fun to dig into this a bit more (for me, as I'm a tech nerd at heart anyway)

[joeinid]

It's just a little adapter. I think it maintains the reversal so I am just going to hook it up as normal and the number of inversions should balance out.

[m.tonetti]

Taken from Burmester documentation.
"The 911 has two balanced inputs, which can also be operated in unbalanced mode sing the two adaptor plugs supplied as standard. Adapter plugs XLR-RCA necessary to connect unbalanced cables to the balanced input terminals. If your components should only offer unbalanced outputs, you are able to use our balanced inputs with the adapter plugs as unbalanced inputs. In these adapter plugs the Pins 2 (negative input) and Pin 1 (ground pin) are connected (see 077 manual - page 8). The pinning of XLR INPUT/OUTPUT is: PIN1=GND, PIN2=NEG, PIN3=POS.
NOTICE: Please do only use BURMESTER XLR-RCA adapter.
CAUTION: As MONO amp the 911MK3 can only be operated in balanced mode!"

[joeinid]

Thanks Massimo!

I am playing the GAT right now. Very nice indeed.

[Rayooo]

Originally Posted by m.tonetti

Taken from Burmester documentation.
"The 911 has two balanced inputs, which can also be operated in unbalanced mode sing the two adaptor plugs supplied as standard. Adapter plugs XLR-RCA necessary to connect unbalanced cables to the balanced input terminals. If your components should only offer unbalanced outputs, you are able to use our balanced inputs with the adapter plugs as unbalanced inputs. In these adapter plugs the Pins 2 (negative input) and Pin 1 (ground pin) are connected (see 077 manual - page 8). The pinning of XLR INPUT/OUTPUT is: PIN1=GND, PIN2=NEG, PIN3=POS.
NOTICE: Please do only use BURMESTER XLR-RCA adapter.
CAUTION: As MONO amp the 911MK3 can only be operated in balanced mode!"

so it sounds then with an inverting preamp like GAT, using with the 911s, one would reverse the speaker connections as default setting to correct for inversion in preamp... right??

Or said another way, the 911s outputs, using the unbalanced input adapters, will remain non-inverted to input signal....???

[joeinid]

That's what I'm doing. I'll swap in a while and see if I hear a difference. So confusing.

[Rayooo]

Originally Posted by joeinid

That's what I'm doing. I'll swap in a while and see if I hear a difference. So confusing.

Golden ears always claim to be able to instantly hear out-of-absolute-phase audio, Presumably the initial "attack" of a note which originally was a compression half wave, would in an out of phase signal be the opposite.

I've tried to hear absolute phase from time to time and the result is that I'd sure hate to live or die on my ability to detect such things with my funky old ears.