Boring Patchbay bal/unbal question...

[vwcsonic]

Ok, I know patchbays are like the most boring piece of rack gear, but maybe some of you gearheads can help me out. I've gone to the trouble of getting a balanced patchbay and am using all TRS cables on the front and back of the rack to keep my balanced outboard gear balanced. But if my mixing board runs inserts that go TRS to TS (and I'm running those to the patchbay), doesn't it defeat the purpose everytime I patch a balanced piece of gear as an insert?

I'm just wondering if I shouldn't have just given in and gone all unbalanced in the first place.
Thanks

 

[DonF]

Yes, you should have gone unbalanced. Balanced patchbays are a waste of money for most home studio applications, as you have found out the hard way.

 

[TGB]

Unbalanced Reply

Having balanced patch bays isn't a BAD thing... but if you ONLY bought them to use as insert points on a TRS->TS send/return loop, then yeah, it defeats the purpose.

Keep in mind that, so long as the impedences are compatible, unbalanced in most home studios is okay, as short runs (<10ft) are okay; just keep them away from any power (A/C) cables. You may incur a touch of signal loss, but most "Pro-Sumer" pieces are -10 nominal anyway.

I use balanced patch bays in "my" home studio, by the way, but it's chock-full of high-end gear, and I actually do some light tracking for serious projects there, so I want to keep things as clean as possible. But really, the noise floor of most garden variety home studios is like 30+dB anyway, (in the -45dB to -35dB range once line level), so there's probably not much you'd notice going unbalanced, unless you happen to be subject to 60Hz ground loop or imepedence problems.

Not that this helps... but you asked

TGB