Balanced to unbalanced

Nilbog

hello
Okay, I have a few questions here:

1. What exactly happens when you use an XLR to 1/4" converter for a mic? Do you lose quality by plugging into a balanced input vs. an unbalaned input? Any help appreciated.

2. Why the heck are those converters (XLR to 1/4") so dern expensive. Seriouslly, they're like $13!!! I think it's the most expnseive converter in radio shack AND guitar center.

-Nilbog
 
Because of the matching transformer that is crammed in their.

A better way to go would to take a standard mic cable with XLR's on it, but the male end off, combine the wires that go to pins 2 and 3 on the XLR end to the tip (hot) of a 1/4 cable. Or course, pin 1 would go to sleeve (ground).

This way, you avoid the transformers "color" to the sound. You will notice a much better high frequency response also.

Ed
 
I believe that the xlr to 1/4" cables you buy at the store are wired that way. Too little space for a transformer.... :)

My Monster cable doesn't "seem" to produce the same "fullness" that my APC cable does, but, it sure sounds a lot better, and, the contains a smoother overall frequency response.

The difference you may be hearing could be from time alignment issues. Better cable will allow all frequencies to arrive to the other end of it at the same time., thus, time aligned. Cheaper cable will delay certain frequencies a bit causing a sort of phase distortion. When you read about the Monster Studio Pro 1000, they have a patent of how they make their cable time aligned.

At the last rehersal I had with a band I was filling in with I brought along my Monster cable. We plugged in the regular cable the singer was using. It sounded boomy and harsh like always. We plugged in the Monster cable and noticed an increased high frequency definition and that the boomyness was gone. The vocals had a much smoother sound right away. The feedback problems the singer was having with the PA (something I never played with because he wouldn't pay me to fix it... :)) went away immediately!

Many people get so used to a certain sound and when they hear something else, that may or may not sound better, they just assume that it sucks.

Try the brighter cable for awhile and see if your tracks seem to stay in the mix better. Then try the other "darker" sounding cable. In fact, just try recording a vocal or something and just burn a disk of both recordings and see which translates well on a consumer system.

But, another thing to consider is that high quality wiring my show off the bad fidelity of other components in your system. Still, with some creative micing techniques you may still get a better sound.

When I try out new gear, I first try it in a way that I am used to using similar devices. Then, I try it differently. I have found that a lot of gear needs to be used a bit differently to get the best results. But, I notice that better gear produces a better sound used the same way, and only gets better when I start playing with it.

Ed
 
So Ed are the XLR to 1/4 cables you find at music stores wired that way. I have a couple that are like that (they have the brand of the store on them), but usually use my xlr to xlr cables with the trasformer because those cables are better.

I have to admit that I've been cheap and I haven't gone the Monster route. The cables I have are Audio Technica Super Cable and I recently bought a Whirlwind Premium cable that are new on the market I think. The whilwind in price are in between the AT and Monster, but in my test with a 57 and Nt1 into an Art MP- The whilwind was brighter and cleaner, but it didn't seem to reproduce as full of a sound. Neither is better than the other- it's just a sleight difference. Hmmm- I gotta try the Monster...

-jhe
 
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>What exactly happens when you use an XLR to 1/4" converter for a mic?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I'm a bit late on this, but technically I just found out a month/2 ago about this: Using the three wires the mic's signal is sent in both regular and inverted phase. The transformer in the adapter re-inverts the inverted signal and combines the two to a single signal. This method is used because any noise induced in the cable is identical in both circuits and, therefore, *cancelled out* when the transformer combines the two out of phase.

So, theoretically, just using one of the signals would cause a loss (6 dB?) and could have slightly more noise..
 
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