Question about cables 1/4" jacks

Ray Sparra

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Joined
Jan 22, 2011
Location
Portsmouth
I'm looking for some advice about mono/stereo looms. Do any bods here use a small desk for outputs? if so, what type of cables do you use? is putting a mono cable (ts) in a balanced input the right way to go if your signal is mono, or should you put a balanced cable (stereo, trs ) in , and try to feed the mono signal in through that, slightly complicated question, hopefully someone can help? cheers


I should mention it says balanced on the back of the desk.
 
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I'm not sure I understand... If your input is mono, you should use a mono cable of course...?

You can also use a balanced cable if you're picking up high noise levels. For example if your cables run long distances or they are next to power cords.

Separating power cords from audio cables is a good way of keeping noise down btw. Cheaper than using TRS.
 
cheers for the reply, its a bit complicated, the back of the desk says the inserts are balanced, (trs) the signal I want to pass through is mono, can I run a mono signal through a balanced input, if so do I use (ts) cables unbalanced or can I safely use balanced cables (trs) and get the extra headroom ,with out fear of damaging my equipment? Ideally I want to use balanced trs , as both the interface outs and the desk ins support this, but the signal is mono, does this matter??


confusing ??? I been thinking about this for a few days b2b trying to find info,,,
 
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I'm not sure I understand... If your input is mono, you should use a mono cable of course...?

You can also use a balanced cable if you're picking up high noise levels. For example if your cables run long distances or they are next to power cords.

Separating power cords from audio cables is a good way of keeping noise down btw. Cheaper than using TRS.




this is the problem, the signal is mono , but the input is balanced,, as far as I know a balanced input is stereo,
 
Balanced input and stereo input are 2 different things - a balanced input is not a stereo input. In most cases you can use an unbalanced cable with a balanced input without problems.

So, a mono input can be balanced without being stereo... ehh... shit I'm losing track of my thoughts here... There is rarely a single jack stereo input in a mixer, stereo ins are usually 2 mono inputs, be it balanced or unbalanced. The only stereo jack I can think of is the one on a headphone output.

It won't break your mixer if you use unbalanced (TS) cables with an balanced input.
 
yeah, been confusing me, I want to use a trs loom because of the extra headroom balanced cables give, obviously my signal chain is not going to stop me doing this, but because of the signal being mono(unbalanced), is the signal going to deteriorate/cause problems running through the stereo ins outs,
what i'm trying to know is can a mono signal translate through stereo cabling as a representation of the original signal?

without causing damage to the desk or amp!
 
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Balanced input and stereo input are 2 different things - a balanced input is not a stereo input. In most cases you can use an unbalanced cable with a balanced input without problems.

So, a mono input can be balanced without being stereo... ehh... shit I'm losing track of my thoughts here... There is rarely a single jack stereo input in a mixer, stereo ins are usually 2 mono inputs, be it balanced or unbalanced. The only stereo jack I can think of is the one on a headphone output.

It won't break your mixer if you use unbalanced (TS) cables with an balanced input.





yeah it's a bit of a boggling question!, any idea of a more nerdy website I could ask? cheers
 
Go buy some mono 1/4 jack cables =]

funny you should say that, thats what I did, but I didnt realise they were unbalanced, I'm gonna get a balanced stereo loom aswell, I believe the difference now is the balanced loom will give you 4 stereo or 8 mono inputs , where the unbalanced will only give you 8 mono , with less headroom,, extra £15 for a loom, but I want to make sure i'm not gonna cause damage to the electrics of the desk but putting wrong cables in,,,,
 
I believe the difference now is the balanced loom will give you 4 stereo or 8 mono inputs , where the unbalanced will only give you 8 mono , with less headroom

Wrong, unbalanced or balanced doesn't have anything to do with being stereo or mono. Most mixers have stereo inputs and outputs, like my mixer has 4 stereo inputs, so I can record 4 stereo tracks at once, or I could record 8 mono tracks at once, since each stereo input is build from two mono inputs, called Left and Right.
 
Balanced is just a way of describing how the cable is wired really, an unbalanced mono cable will have 2 wires, a positive, and a negative/ground, in the case of a TRS connector these will be wired to the Tip and Sleeve. A balanced mono cable will have a positive wire and negative wire (which is wired to the ring of the TRS), and a separate ground, which is still wired to the Sleeve. The main benefit is noise reduction, which becomes more important over long cable lengths, as when the Negative and Ground are shared, the ground can introduce interference into your audio signal.
 
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