stereo cords
my friend was supposed to buy me TRS balanced XLR to 1/4 inch cords. he bought me XLR to 1/4 inch unbalanced low noise microphone cords. they are twenty feet long and there is zero background noise. they go from my mixer to sound card. it sounds amazing cause I have a nice mixer. are microphone cords any different then normal patch cords. specifically with cords that have no impedance. just letting you know if your short on money you don’t need balanced TRS.
how do you set up a profile picture on djtechtools
balanced vs. unbalanced makes the biggest difference when you’re running into an amplifier (e.g., with a microphone cable into a mic preamp or from a mixer to an amplifier).
A 20’ unbalancd mic cable running into a preamp will pick up the radio unless you’re in a shielded room or live in the middle of nowhere.
there is electrical cable, telephones, TV’s radio stations whatever around and there is no noise. they are shielded mic cables. do you know though if mic cables are to be used this way.
I’d be very surprised if they were unbalanced Mic cables. Also, all cables have impedance, just FYI.
go nuts DJ TechTools Forums
This.
I’ve seen unbalanced mic cables, but not often. If they have XLR on both sides, they’re balanced. If they’re XLR-TRS cables, they’re not mic cables, but they’re balanced. If they’re XLR-TS cables, they’re unblaanced and also not mic cables.
The biggest difference between XLR-XLR mic, patch/utility, and DMX cables has to do with how big the wires are and how much impedance the cables cause. They’re all basically interchangeable except that it can cause problems to use mic cables for DMX lighting.
And, again, if you’re going line level to line level with unbalanced cables, it’s not a huge deal. If you ran those cables into an amplifier, especially if you were actually using a microphone going into a mic preamp, you would hear it.
yup no noise! I don’t think you are right about the impedance. they are basically the same as RCA cords. they are called low noise microphone cables. 1/4 inh to XLR
low noise microphone cables are almost certianly balanced.
Is there a metal ring in the middle of the 1/4" side? If there is, they’re balanced.
This shows the difference:
The top one is either stereo or mono balanced. The bottom one is mono and unblanaced.
And all cables have an impedance. All cables more or less boil down to wires running next to each other, possibly with one of them (or a third wire) actually being a metal shroud around the others.
This physical structure is a capacitor that acts as a low-pass filter and has an impedance. Period. It’s not possible to make a cable that doesn’t do it to some degree.
In some circles, low-impedance guitar cables are all the rage. They’re expensive and precisely built so that they work as really crappy capacitors instead of the only slightly crappy capacitors that all cables are. And considering how quiet guitar signals are, how much high-frequency content there is, and how they’re amplified…the difference is audible (but not necessarily preferable).
I agree. but the cables are 1/4inch to XLR and they are not TRS. the quarter inch is mono. it does not look like a TRS. it only uses two of the pins in the XLR output. that’s why they are unbalanced. my sound card has balanced 1/4 inch in and out. meaning you can use a unbalanced cord with it. would a unbalanced cord always work with a balanced in or out? it says microphone cable on the cord.
I just saw your diagram. the 1/4 inch side of the cord has one ring not two on my cables.
Yes you can use those cables but the signal will not have the common mode rejection of a balanced cable.
a balanced signal is two overlaying signals that get squished together in the end and all the noise is filtered out. hot and cold are the two signals that share the ground. so your right. did you know the cold signal is inverse to the hot so there is less noise in the wire before the final stage ware they get overlapped witch filters out the noise. I know the cables in the picture only use the hot and ground.
Yes, I’m speaking to you as a professional. I, as well as mostapha, know what we’re talking about. I’m glad you’re doing some research on your own, also. Shows initiative.
thanks for your help!
I will say it’s strangely frustrating to read what are probably quotes from wiki instead of you just explaining why you were doing things that cause problems so maybe we could find a workaround or solution.
