My experience has been that it's better (quieter) running at +4.
My understanding is that there's no 'conflict' between +4 and -10 gear - you just have to be more careful with the levels. In your case,
the BlueMax would be receiving a higher voltage than it was optimized for, but you could use it anyway if you turned the input gain down. I could be wrong.
Also, check out what Sonixx said here about voltage and balanced/unbalanced a couple months ago. I find it useful. Maybe you will too.
"there's some mis-information that needs attention.
first: +4 refers to +4dBu which is a voltage magnitude of 1.23Vrms. this almost always refers to Pro-Audio levels. therefore Pro-VU meters are Calibrated to this. +4dBu signals are not inherently less suseptable to Noise than than other designs because of the higher Voltage magnitudes. they get their Better Signal-to-Noise from being balanced. virtually all +4dBu level lines are balanced.
second: -10 refers to -10dBV which corrosponds to .316Vrms which is mostly consumer equipment. again this level is not inherently more suseptable to noise because of the lower Voltage levels but due to its single ended design (non-balanced). a balanced line running at -10dBv can be made just as noise free as a +4dBU balanced line and a non-balanced -10dBV line is just as suseptable to noise as a +4dBU balanced line.
third: while a long line does have more resistance (actually impedance is the correct term), this is generally not the problem. the Capacitance is what gets you. your cable ends up rolling off the hi's due the the formed R/C network. no doubt that lower resistance cables may help, but what you want is a lower Z (impedance) per Unit length. this is what you pay for in quality cables. also, cheaper cables may have significant Inductance per Unit length, now the Low end is Rolled off. again, quality cables lower this value also. now with low quality cables you have an RCL network that gets you coming and going.
now to the question at hand, +4 or -10 cables. normally +4dBu cables are balanced and use XLR or TRS-1/4" Phono Plugs. -10dBV cables normamlly use RCA plugs. there may be exceptions to both of these. given the problem at hand, i'd recommend balanced whenever possible. but for short runs where the possibility of Ground Loops is minimal, single ended RCA cabling will work Okay."
