Why did McIntosh use Female XLR jacks as output connections on some preamps?

I know for a fact Cardas will reterminate cables. And, I'd guess most high end cable mfgs would as well, or whip up a pair. If the Mogami, Belden, or Canare isn't good enough.

Point is, there is nothing material stopping one from doing it. The only road block is in the mind.

Or, failing all that, have the females replaced with males. Easy peasy.
Again my choice and opinion, not going to spend money on high dollar cables, customize them to fit one preamp and one use. Hell then if I wanted to swap in another pre and use it I'll need all other cabling for that one. I don't know why you always feel the need to argue with me and others on their "Opinion" and or Feelings. If you didn't have so much good info to offer, I'd have put you on ignore long ago. I mean that you really do have great technical input, but when you feel the need (far to often) to argue with someones opinion it really doesn't make sense.

I'm sure you'll have more input as to my opinion, but please take it for what it's worth and think about it.
 
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I'm sure you'll have more input as to my opinion...

Not about your opinion so much but about the nature my replies.

I have no problem with "I don't want to." but it didn't dawn on me for a moment that it was so strongly personal in that regard; only that it was a simple technical matter to overcome.
 
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I'm glad this came up because buying used stuff, I wouldn't think at a glance that the XLR would be of no use at all for me.

This^^

For me it's a deal breaker and I'll make sure any used mac gear that has the XLRs has the gender correctly orientated. Preamps inputs and out puts, Power amp inputs and so forth. Other than turntables my whole system is hooked up with XLR, and any mac components I have with XLR and non mac all follow the same gender direction.

Sure someone can adapt, convert and work around but that's still added cost and inconvenience one should look at prior to buying. The best move would be to switch the connections at the unit but for a lot of us that would be the cost of parts and service at a mac service center. Just think if they did the C100 or C200 backwards, thats a lot of connections for the inputs and outputs.
 
Unless we have someone from McIntosh product engineering or management that was directly involved at the time, we'll probably never have the definitive answer.

That said, frankly, having female sockets for outputs seems more sensical to me than having exposed male pins for outputs. Sure, nobody is going to be electrocuted by sticking their finger onto the pins of a male XLR. But, it sure does seem counterintuitive for the "standard" to be exposed male pins for output.

Sometimes good reasons are not immediately apparent. Maybe there is a good reason for male XLR for outputs? Anybody?
 
The question was WHY?

Because at McIntosh they believed at the time this was the standard most likely, things established in the pro audio world do take a while to filter through to other areas such as domestic audio.

This^^

For me it's a deal breaker and I'll make sure any used mac gear that has the XLRs has the gender correctly orientated. Preamps inputs and out puts, Power amp inputs and so forth. Other than turntables my whole system is hooked up with XLR, and any mac components I have with XLR and non mac all follow the same gender direction.

Sure someone can adapt, convert and work around but that's still added cost and inconvenience one should look at prior to buying. The best move would be to switch the connections at the unit but for a lot of us that would be the cost of parts and service at a mac service center. Just think if they did the C100 or C200 backwards, thats a lot of connections for the inputs and outputs.

Come on mate, thats ridiculous, get the soldering gun out and change them!! Its really that simple...

It's hard to believe there is so much emotion and controversy over this when the C35 went out of production 24 years ago! :idea:

There is isn't there, but I think it branched off into "what is the standard", "when was the standard introduced", and "why did McIntosh think it was the standard".

But seriously, for me, it wouldn't bother me in the least, I'd slip some nice new connectors in there and get on with it...:thumbsup:

Right, so there it is.:yikes:
 
Unless we have someone from McIntosh product engineering or management that was directly involved at the time, we'll probably never have the definitive answer.

That said, frankly, having female sockets for outputs seems more sensical to me than having exposed male pins for outputs. Sure, nobody is going to be electrocuted by sticking their finger onto the pins of a male XLR. But, it sure does seem counterintuitive for the "standard" to be exposed male pins for output.

Sometimes good reasons are not immediately apparent. Maybe there is a good reason for male XLR for outputs? Anybody?

Well, if you must.:)
The first Sound company back in 1983 I worked for used XLR (cannon, but actually were switchcraft connectors) cables for Mic leads, signal cables, AND Speaker cables.
We used Female XLR's for speaker outputs on our modular JBL PA system so that they could not be shorted out on anything. Same as an AC power cable.
Our bi-amped monitor speakers used EP4 (4pin) connectors, and they ran the same female output convention...

If you had the amp on that you plugged a cable into and the other end wasn't plugged in, you could short them out quite easily, and we all know what sort of protection amplifiers had back then....One chance!! That's all you got before "POOF" and it was over.

So speaker XLR cables ran the opposite convention to what signal ran....and they still do. Although with the introduction of the Neutrik Speakon connector in about 1991-2, this has changed speaker cables somewhat.
 
How about the fact that a lot of professional Japanese. equipment has pin 2 as + and others have pin 3 as +. There was an entire run of MXR stereo EQ where the polarity was reversed between the left and right channels. So I guess no one is perfect.
 
I never said Pro gear doesn't use XLR, I was saying Pro gear does not follow a standard where signal ouptuts are female XLR, perhaps I didn't explain it very well.
I have been in professional Audio for 30 years, and I have never seen a female XLR representing an output...I would be surprised if this was intentional as it would be rather difficult to hook it up to another device which follows conventional standards.
In the 'small world' dept, I recently bought a very clean C-35. (I now have two) One is male, and the other is female XLR connectors. I can squinch back there, and get the serial numbers, if anyone is interested.
 
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