balanced Preamp signal into unbalanced soundcard

[stevem554]

I always got confused with this stuff.

1- if I have a mic pre that has a balanced output signal and i go into my crappy soundcard that has unbalanced inputs. will that be "bad" or would it not matter?

2- are balanced TRS outputs always +4 ? are unbalanced TS outputs always -10 ?


thanks

[tdukex]

Originally Posted by stevem554

I always got confused with this stuff.

1- if I have a mic pre that has a balanced output signal and i go into my crappy soundcard that has unbalanced inputs. will that be "bad" or would it not matter?

2- are balanced TRS outputs always +4 ? are unbalanced TS outputs always -10 ?

thanks

1. Balanced to unbalanced will work fine. Don't worry.

2. I had to edit this a bit. I thought this was only an issue only with soundcards and has to do with input gain. My older Midiman Dman 2044 soundcard, for example, has 4 unbalanced ins. I can switch from (-10 to +4) input gain on each chanel with a separate jumper on the soundcard. But i was wrong, my DMP3 manual states that, in general, balanced signals are +4 and unbalanced are -10. So there you have it. My soundcard is unique, perhaps. My simple understanding is that +4 also gives you the best signal-to-noise performance, so that's what I use.

[stevem554]

thanks for the info

BTW I don't know why gear makers just don't do away with this -10 stuff and just adopt the +4 standard. maybe I'm missing something. is it that much more expensive to manufacture +4 gear. it has to be only a few more dollars.

anyway, happy holidays to everybody.

[SonicAlbert]

+4 is considered "pro", and -10 is consumer. So there's *lots* of gear operating at either level. I prefer when the manufacturer has a switch on the box allowing either -10 or +4 operation. That makes interfacing easy.

You could buy or make TRS to TS cables to properly wire your two units together.

[tdukex]

Originally Posted by SonicAlbert

You could buy or make TRS to TS cables to properly wire your two units together.

In my experience, there is really no need. Balanced cables work fine on unbalanced gear.

[Warhead]

The cabling issue, just try whatever cable you have already and see if it works. Probably fine.

War

[SonicAlbert]

It probably will work, but I have a thing about cables being the right type on both ends. So if I'm going TRS to TS it's wired that way.

[LemonTree]

balanced to unbalanced you'll get about 6dB gain drop but it will work. Try to keep your cable runs under 3 meters or you could start picking up nasty hum and noise but go with what you have, we all started somewhere. Happy recording and merry xmas