Oo. Mackie Channel Inserts Q

[orson198305]

I'd just like to say hello to everyone first cause i'm a new member, great forum!!

I reciently bought a new mackie mixer and have been hooking everything up with balanced cables to get the best possible sound. The channel inserts are said to be balanced, but this can't be true due to the fact of there being a send and return from the same socket. If the insert is indeed balanced then i would have to find a jack plug with a tip, ring, earth and two extra connections.

Am i just talking rubbish , is it false advertising or does it really matter because of the channel preamp increasing the weak signal before the insert to line level?

Chears

 

[tarnationsauce2]

Do you have a link to the manual for the mixer?
I suppose it's possible the mixer could have balanced inserts if it has a seperate plug for send and return instead of the TRS scheme commonly used.

With that said... there is debate on weather Balanced or Un-Balanced is better quality.

Generally Balanced is better for long runs, but for short runs unbalanced is better. The reason is that balanced signals require 2 input signal amplifiers rather than 1. The more amplifiers in a circuit, the more THD, coloration, and internal noise can be introduced. For alalog mastering I use all unbalanced, but I use extremely high quality cabling (Requisete) and mains filteration.
Balanced is far superior for long runs though, as the balanced signal will allow the 2 amplifiers I talked about earlier to remove a lot of the Common Mode voltages (induced noise).

 

[orson198305]

Ah well to save any confusion and money i'll just use unbalanced insert cabling. The insert is only 1m away from my rack anyway.

Thanks

 

[cpl_crud]

The inserts are unbalanced, and I think you'd be hard pressed to find an unbalanced single point insert anywhere.
Most balanced inserts have two points, like on the bigger Midas consoles.

However, considering that the majortiy of insert points come after the unbalancing opamp and all of them come after the mic preamp, then there's no point in trying to go balanced to the insert. Plus, you're not usually goign to be going too far with an insert cable, and any interferance should effect both the send and return equally, just liek a balanced cable.