camrockbell

Thanks all, for these very helpful responses! I will most definitely go straight to my DAW via USB and can now rest easy. Had to laugh at the 24k gold ears comment: I definitely don't have them--pretty bad tinnitus, alas--and so that's why I need the psychological reassurance of people way smarter than I (and yup--I think you absolutely called it: I did pick up that "coloring" comment on an audiophile forum. I try to resist the BS but, gosh, those guys are so good at creating some sort of weird audio-specific FOMO anxiety (what will I miss if I don't choose the right cables and best signal path!!!!). I genuinely appreciate the patience and advice here

Hey all! I just made the thrilling leap from HX Stomp to Helix Stadium today, but I’m now uncertain what to do with all my new connectivity options (yeah, an embarrassment of riches, I know). In short, I want to connect my Stadium (not XL) to my Apollo Twin X. With the Stomp, I do this with 1/4 TRS out to XLR in cables and have never had any problems. But because the Stadium has XLR outs, I’m wondering if it would be better to just go XLR to XLR. I have heard some say to stick to TRS all the way because it’s all line level anyway, some who say using all XLR will “color” the signal, and others who suggest using an S/PDIF (Helix) to optical (Apollo) connection. All I want to know is: 1) which cable connection option will yield the cleanest/most transparent signal? 2) of the two analog options here (Xlr vs trs), which is best? Thanks!