Unbalanced Cables

S

suddentwigs

New member
Hi there. I've just plugged my new monitors into my system and I find that I have a lot of electrical interference coming from the speakers. My audio interface unfortunately lacks balanced outputs; what is my best bet for sorting this? The cables don't have to go very far, I thought unbalanced cables were only a problem over a few metres.
 
does it only happen with certain pieces in the mix??? check for AC cables running alongside audio... if ya cant reroute it make it cross at 90 degrees..
 
It happens with absolutely everything, even when speakers are idle. It's definitely electrical interference, it seems to react particularly to mouse movements and changes on screen. I've been told a stereo DI box between my interface and speakers is the way to go, but I thought I'd throw it open to more opinions. Unfortunately there's no way I can reroute cables in the manner you suggest, there is no space to do so.
 
Are they active monitors? Might be a ground loop issue. I had the same problem when I ran active monitors with an unbalanced interface.

What you can try is running a wire into the signal ground on the balanced ins (likely XLRs) on your monitors. Then, try touching the other end of the wire to the chassis of all of your different equipment, and additionally try grounding the wire to your outlets/power strips. If you don't know what the ground pin on the outlet is, please do look it up before accidentally frying your equipment by sticking the ground wire into a hot!

Running the signal ground on my monitors to a certain outlet ground mostly fixed the issue for me. Of course switching to a balanced interface rid me of the noise completely, but until you can afford that check out all of your grounding.
 
youmown or renting??? perhaps an hour or two of the electricians time would do... make sure all the equipment is on the same powerleg... sounds like you may have funky wiring job... one socket maybe out from the others...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top