XLR or Balanced 1/4" for Outboard Gear??

[arcaxis]

A few of the audio processors I have are fitted with XLR and 1/4" balanced outs. When interconnecting this gear, for instance a mic pre into a DAW that has XLR and balanced ins, is there a prefered way? It just seems that XLR ins on a DAW are for mics rather than outboard gear and maybe the 1/4" is more appropriate.

[Jeyan]

If you have a inbuilt pre amp connected to your XLR inputs then they are meant for microphones, but the XLRs in the signal processors are just the same as balanced stereo 1/4". Makes no difference expect that the terminals are a little farther than 1/4".

[Blue Bear Sound]

It all depends on the gear...

On some gear, when they have both XLR and 1/4" they will run +4dBu thru the XLRs and unbalanced -10dBV via the 1/4"....

Or other times, both will be balanced +4dBu.... in which case it doesn't matter which you use.

You'd have to read the I/O spec in the manual to know for sure...