XLR balanced/unbalanced - Behringer UltraGain MIC100

[RollingJ]

Hi,

Newbie so apologies in advance for any poor terminology.

I've just bought one of the above primarily to use for a microphone (Shure SM57) into a Tascom DP-004.

I just put down the soldering iron after putting together two cables. One for the mic to the preamp (XLR - XLR) and the other XLR to 1/4" jack.

The original cable I got with the mic was unbalanced so I followed this through with the new cables - duly bridged 1-3 in the XLR connectors.

So far so good. I was then looking at the User Manual and saw the following:

AUDIO OUTPUTS
Connectors: XLR connector + 1/4" TRS jack balanced/unbalanced

This seems slightly ambiguous. Can anyone tell me whether that means both XLR and jack outputs can be either balanced or unbalanced or does it mean that the XLR is balanced only whereas the jack can be either?

Thanks in advance.

 

[philbagg]

That seems very strange to me. Maybe there's something I'm missing out on, but XLR is balanced, and so is TRS 1/4"...

Unless the output of the unit itself is unbalanced? But, as I said, I don't know how it could be, because the two connections in question are both balanced connections.

 

[Washburn100]

If I'm not mistaken, this just means you can use balanced or unbalanced cables. 1/4" TS or 1/4TRS will both work and for XLR, sometimes they will solder terminal 2-3 together making an unbalanced xlr cable.

 

[philbagg]

If I'm not mistaken, this just means you can use balanced or unbalanced cables. 1/4" TS or 1/4TRS will both work and for XLR, sometimes they will solder terminal 2-3 together making an unbalanced xlr cable.

Why didn't I think of that

Good stuff washburn!

 

[RollingJ]

As I said, I'm new to this game and just learning about unbalanced and balanced signals etc. I've read up and understand the concept of noise reduction.

The Tascam inputs are unbalanced.

I just want to make sure I'm not going to damage either of the connected pieces of equipment by wiring the XLR to TS cable unbalanced.

 

[philbagg]

As I said, I'm new to this game and just learning about unbalanced and balanced signals etc. I've read up and understand the concept of noise reduction.

The Tascam inputs are unbalanced.

 

[dintymoore]

... AUDIO OUTPUTS
Connectors: XLR connector + 1/4" TRS jack balanced/unbalanced

This seems slightly ambiguous. Can anyone tell me whether that means both XLR and jack outputs can be either balanced or unbalanced or does it mean that the XLR is balanced only whereas the jack can be either?

Thanks in advance.

TRS is three connector, and so is XLR when wired with 3 wires.

Three wires = balanced.

Two wires = unbalanced.

I think that's what they mean. For me, this whole thing of "balanced/unbalanced" would have not resulted in any of the mass confusion that it's caused if they simply called it "2 wire or 3 wire"... I sure wished "they'd" done that.