Here's some info about Balanced and unbalanced connections. Typically, balanced connections are considered 'professional' and usually have a signal level of +4dBU. Unbalanced connections are considered 'consumer' and are usually at -10dBV. They are both line level, and I put quote things around professional and consumer because like I say, this is just typical. Some 'consumer' gear has balanced connections all over it. The same goes with the signal levels. -10 and +4 has to do with INPUT / OUTPUT SENSITIVITY. It is important to realize that balanced connections can have a signal level of -10, and vice versa. Now, why balanced?? What is that?? A balanced connection has 3 pins/wires. A hot, nuetral and ground. Some look at this as two hots and a ground. An XLR is a balanced cable, and a balanced connection. The benefit of this is that the audio signal goes through the cable a special way. When the signal hits, it is transferred along both hots, but one is phase inverted. When the signal reaches it's destination, it is flipped back, thus SUMMING what is there. Why the phase flip?? When two signals are flipped, stuff that is most common gets canceled. In this case, the audio is perfectly canceled. Along the cable, you may pick up hum, noise, EMI RFI, etc. At the end, the signal is flipped again, and again, whatever is common gets canceled, which is the noise now. So, a balanced connection cancels all noise out and actually sums the original signal, giving a much quieter and louder signal. An unbalanced connection doesn't have the benefit of this. So, as I said earlier, a balanced connection is 2 hots and a ground. Any TRS, XLR, MINI JAck, etc. can be used as a balanced connection. DON'T confuse TRS with stereo, or a mini jack with stereo!!!! They can be and often are wired for stereo use. I would suggest that you go with whatever works for you best, software wise. Either way you go, you need to run your mics through a mixer (which more than likely has all unbalanced connections on it) and use the busses or Direct outs to go into the recording interface. DONT GET INTO ADAPTORS!!! USE THE RIGHT CABLE FOR THE JOB!!! The Delta's have the option of switching their operation between -10, +4 and Instrument level (which is somewhere between). Another big issue is plugins. There are hundreds of Direct X plugs, and only very few very expensive, but also really good, plugs for Digi 001 RTAS. I've found the Delta's to work GREAT, and they sound really good. I've never used any of the MOTU stuff, but I assume (with all the connections on it) that they are very adaptive to whatever you need. (Need to dump to ADATS??? MOTU. Need to go to those DA-88's?? MOTU) Here's another suggestion---Check out and research some other software on you 'wish' list and see which cards are supported, or more compatible, etc. That might influence a desision as well. Good luck!!!
