Monitors and XLR...

**jamiewebster** · 05-04-2011, 04:26 AM

Hi guys - I have a (probably quite stupid!) question....

Basically I've just bought a pair of Yamaha HS80m's... its my first set of monitors.

Now, I already have a DJM 350 mixer and an NI Audio4 interface, but neither of these have XLR inputs that the monitors need to connect - am I right in thinking just simply buying a cable that transforms XLR to Phono will be OK for sorting this? I'm just a bit concerned that I'll loose quality this way... This is the cable I was going to purchase:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Cable-Double-R...#ht_4518wt_774

Will this be OK, and will I still retain the sound quality etc?

Thanks for your time, and apologies id this is a stupid question!!

Jamie

**fullenglishpint** · 05-04-2011, 04:33 AM

You won't lose quality, but the signal will be unbalanced. That just means it's more susceptible to interference from nearby electrical appliances etc.

Further reading:

[ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balanced_audio"]Balanced audio - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia@@AMEPARAM@@/wiki/File:Kabel-Symetrisch.png" class="image"><img alt="Kabel-Symetrisch.png" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7d/Kabel-Symetrisch.png/220px-Kabel-Symetrisch.png"@@AMEPARAM@@commons/thumb/7/7d/Kabel-Symetrisch.png/220px-Kabel-Symetrisch.png[/ame]

Just avoid running the cables over long distances or near electrical appliances and you should be fine.

**jamiewebster** · 05-04-2011, 04:39 AM

thanks for the speedy response!
I'm thinking of getting a 3m cable - thats not too long is it? What's a safe distance away from electrical equipment - It's likely to be set up quite close to my decks and imac ya see!

Cheers

Jamie

**jamiewebster** · 05-04-2011, 04:41 AM

Also, I've seen you can buy unbalanced cables too - would they be more preferable?

**fullenglishpint** · 05-04-2011, 04:55 AM

The output is unbalanced so whatever cable you use you're not going to be able to improve it. 3m should be fine, the worst you're likely to get is a bit of hum or that duh-d-d-duh noise from a cell phone being left next to it. if it's a problem, there are things you can do about it (loads of threads on that on this forum).

Good luck!

**jamiewebster** · 05-04-2011, 04:58 AM

Sorry, one last question!!

Would the hum be lost if I ran the monitors through an amplifier/audio interface?

Thanks for your help!

**fullenglishpint** · 05-04-2011, 05:13 AM

It's not guaranteed that there will be a hum, there's just a chance of it. The amp/interface won't make a difference as if it were there it would be generated by electromagnetic interference induced in the audio cable (basically the magnetic field generated by electrical appliances creating unwanted extra voltage in the cable).

Don't worry about it though man, It'll probably be fine.