balanced to balanced with an unbalanced cable?
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From: Danny T on 23 Apr 2008 18:41 If I go from a behringer eurorack mxb1002 balanced output to a m-audio bx8 (active desktop speaker) balanced input and use an unbalanced cable, will it cause damage? thanks
From: Richard Crowley on 23 Apr 2008 19:09 "Danny T" wrote ... > If I go from a behringer eurorack mxb1002 balanced output to a m-audio > bx8 (active desktop speaker) balanced input and use an unbalanced > cable, will it cause damage? Probably not cause damage. It might even work.
From: Scott Dorsey on 23 Apr 2008 19:30 Danny T <dannytaddei(a)gmail.com> wrote: >If I go from a behringer eurorack mxb1002 balanced output to a m-audio >bx8 (active desktop speaker) balanced input and use an unbalanced >cable, will it cause damage? Cables are not balanced. Only signals are balanced. If you mean that you have a TS 1/4 phone cable, and you use it between these two devices... the answer is that no, they won't be damaged, but your possibility of noise pickup is greater. Because as soon as the signal goes into the T-S cable and one leg is shorted to ground, it is no longer balanced. --scott -- "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."
From: Mike Rivers on 23 Apr 2008 20:06 Danny T wrote: > If I go from a behringer eurorack mxb1002 balanced output to a m-audio > bx8 (active desktop speaker) balanced input and use an unbalanced > cable, will it cause damage? I don't know what the circuitry of the output stage of that mixer is, but on the assumption that the ring doesn't have signal on it (which is they way most of the balanced outputs on budget equipment are made), you won't cause any damage and it will surely work. There's at least one form of output stage where grounding the ring, which is what you do when you insert an unbalanced plug, shorts out the output of an op amp inverter. Because its input is tied to the op amp that feeds the tip, it can cause distortion in the signal that you want, and in extreme cases, may cause damage. How's that for something to worry about? You can run a little test. Get an "insert" cable that has a TRS plug with the tip and ring brought out to separate unbalanced plugs on the other end. Plug the TRS plug into the mixer's output and send a signal to the mixer. Plug the Tip plug to the speaker. You should hear something. Now plug the Ring plug into the speaker. If you hear nothing, that mens there's no signal on the ring and you can safely use an unbalanced cable. If you hear something, you could be in trouble, or not. If there's signal on both the tip and ring, the best thing to do is to make a cable with a TRS plug on the mixer end and leave the ring disconnected (which is essentially what you did in the test above). For best economy, buy a TS (unbalanced) cable twice as long as you need, and two TRS plugs. Cut it in the middle and put a TRS plug, wired tip-only, on each cut end. You have two speakers, don't you? -- If you e-mail me and it bounces, use your secret decoder ring and reach me here: double-m-eleven-double-zero at yahoo -- I'm really Mike Rivers (mriv...(a)d-and-d.com)
From: Danny T on 23 Apr 2008 20:25
On Apr 23, 6:09 pm, "Richard Crowley" <rcrow...(a)xp7rt.net> wrote: > "Danny T" wrote ... > > > If I go from a behringer eurorack mxb1002 balanced output to a m-audio > > bx8 (active desktop speaker) balanced input and use an unbalanced > > cable, will it cause damage? > > Probably not cause damage. It might even work. I know it will work... just thought besides the noise there might be some resister or something that might pop |