Convert balanced line to rca line on presonus inspire

A

amzavareei

New member
Hey there! I need to convert a high level xlr line level to a low level rca input on my inspire. Does anyone know the cheapest way to do that? Can an XLR to RCA cable with a resistor inline do the job? I know there are the active line converters, but that's overkill for this task. Can't it be done passively? Thanks!
 
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You may be able to roll your own, Ebtech makes a passive box called the line level shifter, goes from -10 to +4 or the other way, plus it cuts ground loops.
 
If you want to maintain balanced line transmission up to the RCA, you'd need a transformer in front of it. Otherwise, yeah pad the signal off the XLR. Or just turn it down -12dB if possible.

You wouldn't want to put a single resistor inline; you would want to build an L-pad, which is two resistors. 1.5K series/470 shunt is close enough. The values aren't critical, the ratio is somewhat so, so you can probably use whatever similar values you have laying around.

And depending on what is feeding the XLR, you can either leave pin 3 disconnected, or you should connect it to pin 1.

One nice thing about the transformer approach is that in addition to balanced transmisson, it can be selected to drop -12dB, and it will handle all the vagaries of termination for you. But if we are just talking a 3' cable run, it's probably overkill.
 
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