balanced cable runs

  • Thread starter Thread starter detuned6
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detuned6

Metal dude
I need a longer cable for my right monitor. Im currently have a 6 ft balanced studiolink 500 monster cable. i need like a 9ft, so i can get to the back of the rack. I read somewhere that balanced cable runs should be kept short. Yeah...no?
 
I personally have never heard that before. Certainly there can't be any signal depreciation between 6' and 9'. Hopefully some techies will answer.
 
All cables act as antennae and pick up noise, Radio Moscow, static and so forth.

Balanced cable connectors split the hot signal into two conductors, reverse polarity on one, and the receiving gear reverses back. Both hot lines carry the same static signal in phase, because the static is added during the course of the cable run - after the main signal's polarity was reversed. So when the receiving gear again reverses polarity on one of the two hot lines, the main signals on both hot conductors are again of the same polarity. Because the switchback on the receiving end doesn't differentiate between static and signal, it also reverses polarity on the static, which is now of a reverse phase to its counterpart. The hot lines are then joined. When two signals are exactly out of phase with each other, they cancel each other out: you get silence. The static is "there" but not in any way that can be measured sonically.

Unbalanced cables pick up the same interference but because they do not benefit from polarity reversal, the noise is not separable from the signal and you can hear it. Keep an unbalanced cable short.
 
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Wow, that was a long way to go just to say balanced cables reject interference.

Yes, you can run balanced cables for hundreds of feet. It is the unbalanced cables that have distance problems.
 
homerecor said:
Wow, that was a long way to go just to say balanced cables reject interference.
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Sure... but if one is a rookie, simply saying "balanced cables reject interference" isn't all that helpful in giving him an understanding of the underlying theory, now is it........
 
COOL,Thanks guys. i must'a got bal and unbal mixed up. Ill have to go for 13 ft studio link(next size up in the monster world after 6ft)
 
Gee, I don't see "Newbie" under his name. After 500+ posts, does he still need the basics?
 
homerecor said:
Gee, I don't see "Newbie" under his name. After 500+ posts, does he still need the basics?
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This makes absolutely NO sense.............. what, exactly, does post count have to do with a person's skill or experience?????????
 
Never mind.

I didn't mean to light another fire. I was only making an observation.

I guess I thought that the more we discuss things, the more we tend to learn about them. Silly me.
 
homerecor said:
Gee, I don't see "Newbie" under his name. After 500+ posts, does he still need the basics?
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No discussion there. Just a slam.
 
Whoa, whoa, whoa! This is getting out of hand.

I was not slamming Detuned6 at all. I was defending myself against Blue Bear’s slam, which was... [simply saying "balanced cables reject interference" isn't all that helpful].

I thought Detuned6 just wanted a simple answer, not a book on cable design.

And Yes, I do believe that the longer we hang out here and discuss recording gear, the more we learn about it. He has been here discussing music gear for two or three years now. I though it was safe to assume that he was no longer a rookie. I offered him dignity and respect by not treating him like one.

But hey, if you guys are only here to slam each other then I am outta here. Sorry if I offended anyone. See ya.
 
Haha I know jack-shit and I have loadsa posts ... mostly through doing my time on the Newbies board and occasionally fanning flame wars about DJL/SP/Behringer/Chessrock. I have some ridiculously dumb questions still to ask, so I hope no-one looks at my post count and thinks I know anything! The best guy for a good knowledge/post count ratio is Bruce, but there's at least one guy (no names) I can think of with many, many posts and few actual contributions....!
 
I have loadsa posts ... mostly through doing my time on the Newbies board and occasionally fanning flame wars about DJL/SP/Behringer/Chessrock.
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And sometimes double-posting instead of editing when I forget something.

I really enjoy learning by reading and participating and being corrected - I don't just post for the numbers, I learn way more by taking part in threads because it forces me to read them properly rather than just skimming!!
 
homerecor said:
Whoa, whoa, whoa! This is getting out of hand.

I was not slamming Detuned6 at all. I was defending myself against Blue Bear’s slam, which was... [simply saying "balanced cables reject interference" isn't all that helpful].

I thought Detuned6 just wanted a simple answer, not a book on cable design.

And Yes, I do believe that the longer we hang out here and discuss recording gear, the more we learn about it. He has been here discussing music gear for two or three years now. I though it was safe to assume that he was no longer a rookie. I offered him dignity and respect by not treating him like one.

But hey, if you guys are only here to slam each other then I am outta here. Sorry if I offended anyone. See ya.
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Well.... i am sure im more "rookie" then you. Most of my stuff has unbalanced outs, so ive allready invested $$$ on plenty of monster cable(im currently around $380 in monster cable), untill i noticed that my digi001 monitor outs were balanced out and so was my event ps8 ins', so, i bought some balanced cable. And my focusrite preamp also has balanced outs. so thats that. rookie recorder, unrookie guitar player.
 
Me, too. I slowly made the move from home audio gear to more or less high end-ish home audio gear to "prosumer" grade (whatever the hell that is - I think it's anything that goes in a rack and has a wall wart, too), to bits and pieces of pro gear.

And I was all happy dappy using a little Behringer mixer as a monitor / home / studio gear kind of patch bay thing until the power supply decided it had enough of a supporting role and wanted to contribute a solo to everything I was mixing. I finally figured that out this afternoon. That's really good neews. It means my computer's soundcard is dying a lot more slowly than I thought it was. The bigger problem was the mixer.

I'm thinking of giving it a good toss up into a high tension line to see if it will commune with a REAL transformer justl like it wants to. But I'd probably get arrested.
 
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