XLR vs. TRS

Thunder33

Thunder33

New member
Here is the situation......A mixer with 8 XRL ins and 16 Balanced TRS ins. On most occasions, I will not be running more than 8 mics at one time. But if an occasion arises in which I need more, can I run a mic (dynamic, not condenser) with a XRL to TRS cable into the balanced input and not affect the signal?


Please only reply to this if you know the answer for sure. I can speculate with an educated guess all day long but I don't want to waste my money on a bunch of cables if it is going to do no good.

Thank you in advance for your help!



Jamie
 
tourettes5139 said:
I have done it, so yes, it works. At least for me. :D
Click to expand...


Thanks. Did you happened to try it back to back with the xlr inputs? Just curious as to if there is a "slight" difference....or none at all. The whole issue with impedance and all that jive with mics is something that I just never got too close with. Thanks for the help.
 
I don't know about that board, but the only thing to really worry about is if there are preamps (with enough gain) on the TRS channels. The impedance thing won't kill you as much as the channels not having as much gain. This might not be a big deal on loud sources like drums.
 
Yes, for the most part.

TRS does not pass phantom voltage, but this is a non-issue because you mentioned using dynamic mics.

TRS is typically for line level devices, so the preamp channel may not have sufficient gain to handle a MIC level device. This varies by mixer, so may/may not apply to your situation.

The input impedance on a typical TRS line level input is sufficient to handle a low impedance mic properly. On the Mackie VLZ mixers, the TRS and XLR share preamp circuitry and have a similar input impedance. The TRS input does not have phantom power, and has an additional pad in place that allows for sources with higher voltage.
 
I have one preamp hooked into my TRS patch bay and phantom travels just fine. All the rest I keep mic lines hooked up and dedicated
 
Cool. I think I will just pick up one XLR-TRS cable and give it a shot to see what happens. Thanks for the info!
 
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