Balanced/Unbalanced Cables - How Important?
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Posted on Oct 17, 2006 07:22 am
Snake_Bite
Wannabe Producer/Tech Student
Member Since: Aug 11, 2005
I am studying audio and music tech at university, and our lecture the other day consisted of the basics of balanced and unbalanced cables. Our lecturer explained how they work etc and then said that using balanced cables will greatly reduce noise on recordings when compared to unbalanced.
As some of you may know from my other posts, i use a ub2442 desk going out of the direct outs and into a delta 1010lt. As the delta 1010lt only has 2 balanced inputs (XLR), the rest are unbalanced RCA, and i need 8 inputs, i cannot use a balanced set up between the desk and the card.
Main Question:
Does using balanced cables as oppose to unblanced make enough differnece to the quality that its worth me updrading my sound card from a 1010lt to a 1010, or some other sound card with multiple balanced inputs, to allow me to use balanced cables at this point in my chain. How much overall quality differnce do balanced cables make to recording?
thanks
p.s. one other question, this may be a stupid question, but i wanna make sure - how big a differnce in quality is there between the behringer IMP's (invisable mic preamps) in the UB series and the XDR preamps of makie desks? im sure i know the answer, but i dont wanna upgrade desk if the preamps arnt much better, which is really the only component my set up uses in a desk (would just use 8 kik *** preamps if i was made of moeny, lol)
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pjkPrince CZAR-mingMember
Since: Apr 08, 2004
Oct 17, 2006 08:50 am From what I've gathered, balanced cables really come into usefullness over unbalanced in these conditions:
1. very long runs, like from a stage, back to a house mixer, like 50 ft or so.
2. a fair amount of interference between the mic and the preamp, like flourescent lights, electrical wires near the mic cable, etc.
3. with a mic, where the signal (mic level) is very small, and needs to be protected.
If you avoid these issues, then the difference should be very small indeed, most likely not noticable. If you're running under 10 ft, and the cables don't live around AC lines, then I don't think it's worth the change.
Also, balanced only rejects noise from the cable it's on. So if there's other noisy components in your chain, balanced won't help there.
I'm inclined to think that balanced also gives beefier signal, being as how there's two signals going through the cable, instead of one. I've not tested this, but just thinking out loud.
As far as the preamps, If you're happy with the sound, don't worry about replaceing until you can hear the difference. There may be other areas to spend money first. Also, experimenting, and critical listening will probably get you farther than $$$ preamps, for now.
mho, ymmv, etc.
Noize2uCzar of MidiAdministrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002
Oct 17, 2006 06:14 pm Yep, if you are running pretty short cables then balanced is not and absolute must have item.
The other exception would be if they are very close to power cables and such.
ATChrisMusical PhilanthropistMember
Since: Nov 11, 2004
Oct 18, 2006 09:28 am If you're coming out of the direct outs of you mixer, it's line level so unbalanced is fine.
TallChapAnswer:On a good day, lipstick.Member
Since: Jun 24, 2004
Oct 19, 2006 01:20 pm I personally have no problem with the pre-amps in my Behringer mixer. They are actually quite colourless, and do what is says on the box. They are not "kick-***" pres, but they function. If I need to add anything I do with either my MIC-100 (yes, one of the old type), or with VSTs.
There is some 'colouration' that I hear on Mackies. Some like it, some don't. All a matter of taste.
