New Active speakers buzzing noises. How to connect to a computer and sound clear?
I bought a pair of alto tx10 powered speakers which have xlr input only as a connection. My main source of sound output is my computer with a 3.5mm jack. At first I bought a 6m xlr to rca then I used an rca to jack adapter like this [ATTACH=CONFIG]26901[/ATTACH] But the sound was terrible and was having too much interfearence and buzzing and humming even at low volume. I then went to the shop and returned the cable but don’t know what shall I buy to make it work. Does a balanced cable solve this issue? Should I buy a pa mixer to use balanced cables from the mixer to speakers like the Alto ZMX52 [ATTACH=CONFIG]26902[/ATTACH] or a ZMX862 [ATTACH=CONFIG]26903[/ATTACH]? Then I can buy a pair of 6.3mm jack to xlr balanced cables and run to the speakers.
Analog XLR connections are only for carrying a balanced mono channel. Cables are not balanced; connections are balanced. Plugging an XLR cable into an unbalanced output does not magically balance the connection. You should use a sound card with balanced outputs to plug into your speakers. Cheap controllers with built in sound cards tend to only have unbalanced outputs, but you can get a better sound card with balanced outputs for around the price of a cheap controller. I recommend a Focusrite Scarlett 2i4. Plugging the output of your onboard sound card, which isn’t good quality to start with, into a cheap mixer will add more noise and distortion. Plugging a decent sound card with balanced outputs straight into your speakers will sound quite a lot better.
The noise you hear connecting to your speakers with an unbalanced signal is likely ground loop hum, which is rarely an issue with balanced connections.
I solved the problem. I bought a mixer and used proper cordial cables. From the pc to the mixer, I used a 3m stereo 1/8" trs to 1/4" y-adaptor to the mixer and from 1/4" trs to xlr male balanced to the speakers. This setup seems to fixed my noise problem because now the sound is crystal clear.
