Connecting two balanced ¼" jacks to unbalanced stereo speakers

[Mr songwriter]

See title. I recently bought an M-Audio 192 soundcard, which has two pairs of ¼" TRS analogue outputs, but until I get hold of some proper studio monitors with balanced inputs, I am running them through a normal pair of PC speakers with the standard 3.5mm jack. I've tried connecting it in several different ways, but I have only managed to get one of the stereo channels coming out of one of the speakers so far, even though I know that the soundcard is outputting in stereo, so I am now thinking that I am going to have to actually make a cable myself in order to get both stereo channels coming out of the speakers. Is this possible?

 

[boingoman]

You could go to Radio Shack, and get a 1/8" stereo->2 RCA cable, and two RCA->1/4" adapters.

 

[Mr songwriter]

Thanks , that sounds like it would work and hopefully it will, because I think I already have most of those bits anyway, the only thing being that I bought one of these connectors and it's only giving me mono:

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=11431&criteria=3.5mm SPLITTERS&doy=26m10

but the RCA jacks are presumably wired differently so that should give me the stereo?

 

[boingoman]

Huh, I would think that would have worked. You plugged the two 1/4" into your card and then used a 1/4"->3.5mm cable to connect your speakers, right?

 

[Mr songwriter]

Yup I did, there was a ¼" TRS plug going into each output jack on the card (left and right) and a stereo 1/8" jack going to the PC speakers, but I only got mono, it also doesn't sound too good either, with the arrangement you're suggesting will I need ¼" stereo (TRS) or mono (TS) plugs?

 

[boingoman]

Mono. I think using the TRS 1/4" plugs like you did sent both sides to both sides, if you get me. That is, both the left and right signals went to each speaker.

 

[Mr songwriter]

Ok, cheers, I've just checked and they only have RCA to mono ¼" adaptors anyway, and I've already got the other bit, so hopefully that should do the trick.

 

[TexRoadkill]

Yup I did, there was a ¼" TRS plug going into each output jack on the card (left and right) and a stereo 1/8" jack going to the PC speakers, but I only got mono, it also doesn't sound too good either, with the arrangement you're suggesting will I need ¼" stereo (TRS) or mono (TS) plugs?

The jacks going into each soundcard need to be TS (mono). You are using a headphone splitter cable and not a Stereo to dual mono splitter.

 

[Mr songwriter]

OK, ta, that explains it, I've just read the Q&A under the product description too, where it says:

Q) Is this a true stereo splitter? Ie stereo -> 2x mono? or a multiplier Ie mono -> 2x mono
A) No this splits one stero ouput to two stereo outputs.

I've got the the RCA bits and pieces now, and I put them together and tested them earlier with my multimeter to see what was connecting to what and it seemed to be OK, I'll know for sure tomorrow when I test it on the card itself.