RCA to XLR to RCA

 I would like to run XLR's from my EQ (upfront) to my Amps (hatch)

How would i go about doing this??

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Hunter S. Thompson for sheriff

"Why" is my first question, but here's an easy way to create an unballanced XLR to RCA adapter:

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These XLR's are perfect for a car.. No matter how good the RCA's u loose signal and

u get noise.. XLRS have professional Sheilding.  More resistant to noise and resistance is lower.

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Hunter S. Thompson for sheriff

Does the EQ have XLR connections? 

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My wife will never understand why, lucky for her!

I dont know who told you that about XLR's but if it's not necessary I wouldn't use them. If you think it will make any audible difference you are mistaken. XLR's are only used for balanced signals and passing +48v phantom power to mics. RCA's actually have more connection surface area and therefore are a better choice for an unbalanced clean signal.

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My wife will never understand why, lucky for her!

Precisely.  Good quality coaxial RCA cables are in general better signal carriers for standard unbalanced line-level audio signals than are three-conductor cables with XLR connectors.  Microphone cable CAN have better RF shielding properties, but unless you devise a seperate ground plane scheme for the shield it would be ineffective in an unbalanced audio system.

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I think Customsound79 thinks XLRs only have 1 purpose

They do make a difference.. there is WAY less signal loss.

My EQ doesnt have these connections. there are converters out there for this.

What good is more suface area contacts on the RCA when you loose 1 quarter of the signal by the time it gets to your amps..

XLRs are great for sheilding and low resistance.

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Hunter S. Thompson for sheriff

They do only have one purpose - balanced signal connector. Way less signal loss through what? Any signal loss will be through the resistance of the wire unless you have a corroded connector. If you have to use the two RCA's from one point to another anyway, what's the point of slapping an two XLR's in between them? The only difference between an RCA and an XLR in the unbalanced application is the hard case shell. If you want better shielding, just buy shielded pair wire and connect the shield and negative at the RCA. From the application you want to use it for, you won't gain anything and will have more connections to check if something goes wrong. I use XLR's everyday and there is nothing magical about them.

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My wife will never understand why, lucky for her!

robb420in323 wrote:

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These XLR's are perfect for a car.. No matter how good the RCA's u loose signal and u get noise.. XLRS have professional Sheilding.  More resistant to noise and resistance is lower.

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Sorry, that's not even close. An xlr wired with 3 loose wires and no shielding will be just as quiet as one made with Canare L4ES and Neutrik's gold series. The reasons XLRs work the way they do is that they're fully balanced. Pin 3 is ground, connected to, well ground. Pin 2 is "hot, and carries the "in phase" signal, the one normally carried by the center pin of an RCA. Pin 1 carries the "cold" signal, which is the inverse of the one on pin 2. The reason they're more immune to noise is that a balanced input cancels common mode noise amazingly well, and when connected to a balanced output, that's functioning correctly, common more noise is all that can appear. It also allows balanced inputs to work without a ground at all, which removes the possibility for ground loops through the input.
The resistance and shielding have almost nothing to do with the lower noise floor. It's all about topology.

As for losing signal, the only way that happens is with a high resistance cable and a low impedence input, with a faulty output, or when the connector falls out. the biggest downfall that RCAs have is that they're dependent on a ground referenced signal, and when you ground reference something to a car, which has an inherantly compromised ground from an audio standpoint, you invite trouble in the form of hiss, humm, noise, etc. XLRs use a perfect opposite for their reference signal, and not only does it save them from ground induced problems, it gives a +6dB boost, because the voltage "seen" by the input iis 2x that of an unbalanced connection (well, +6dB for volts, +3dB for power, which is irrelevant because line level interconnects require next to no current delivered).

-dave

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This is not a sig. This is a duck. Quack.

DYohn, since this subject came up, how do you connect your ECM8000 to your PC's soundcard input? I know the thing needs a phantom power supply, with ±48v, but I would LOVE to have a phantom power supply with an 1/8 inch output, so I can plug it right in to my soundcard... Suggestions? Lemme know, eh?

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It all reminds me of something that Molière once said to Guy de Maupassant at a café in Vienna: "That's nice. You should write it down."

(bump) For DYohn...

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It all reminds me of something that Molière once said to Guy de Maupassant at a café in Vienna: "That's nice. You should write it down."

haemphyst wrote:

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DYohn, since this subject came up, how do you connect your ECM8000 to your PC's soundcard input? I know the thing needs a phantom power supply, with ±48v, but I would LOVE to have a phantom power supply with an 1/8 inch output, so I can plug it right in to my soundcard... Suggestions? Lemme know, eh?

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The USBPre is the standard for a measurement preamp for a lot of pro sound guys. M-Audio makes some nice standalone preamps, off the top of my head, their AudioBuddy is well received, tho ugly in my opinion. If you want to DIY soemthing, there's gobs of schematics out there, including one-ship solutions. Anything that acts as an external preamp and that has a balanced or unbalanced output can be used. All that is requied is the proper connection between the two. Unfortunately, if you're going from a balanced output to an unbalanced input (your sound card), you'll lose 6dB but it's easy to correct that with the level knob on the preamp (sometimes called trim, makeup gain, or a whole host of other things). Personally, I use an old Soundcraft mixer, but there are literally thousands of options.

Links:
AudioBuddy
USBPre

-dave

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This is not a sig. This is a duck. Quack.

I'll take everyones word for it.

Forget the XLR's

Robb

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Hunter S. Thompson for sheriff

haemphyst wrote:

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DYohn, since this subject came up, how do you connect your ECM8000 to your PC's soundcard input? I know the thing needs a phantom power supply, with ±48v, but I would LOVE to have a phantom power supply with an 1/8 inch output, so I can plug it right in to my soundcard... Suggestions? Lemme know, eh?

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I use a SoundCraft Spirit Folio semi-portable mixer right now (yes, I am tied to an AC wall outlet.)  Has very clean mic pre-amps and phantom power, and gives me a 1/4" output that I simply adapt to the 1/8" input on the soundcard.  Not the most elegant, perhaps, but it lets me have the level control I want without having to use the mouse.

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dpaton, thanks - your solution would work perfectly, IF the mic didn't need a 96 volt (±48) power supply I was asking DYohn, because he uses the TrueRTA (which I have purchased) a laptop, and the Behringer ECM8000 microphone. Now I need a way to get the signal from the MIC to the input of the soundcard... I have considered many soultions, none of which are glamorous at all... and most of them, pretty ugly... so I was just asking how somebody that I know has used the same type of setup as I am planning on using, how they fixed their setup. I do know about the gain thing, but that can be compensated for, fairly easily... What's this USBPre? Never heard of it. Does it offer Phantom Power? If so, it could be a solution. Lemme know.

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It all reminds me of something that Molière once said to Guy de Maupassant at a café in Vienna: "That's nice. You should write it down."

OOps... I didn't see the links you provided... Sorry. Where can I buy the USBPre? I can't seen to find any info about it other than specs...

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It all reminds me of something that Molière once said to Guy de Maupassant at a café in Vienna: "That's nice. You should write it down."

I guess I should either work, or read the forums, not both... Found the website, but WOW!!! 700 bux! sh*te! that'll hafta wait for a while... maybe the audio buddy is a better choice LOL

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It all reminds me of something that Molière once said to Guy de Maupassant at a café in Vienna: "That's nice. You should write it down."

found it in bakersfield... 50 bux... SOLD. I'll let ya all know how it works.

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It all reminds me of something that Molière once said to Guy de Maupassant at a café in Vienna: "That's nice. You should write it down."

haemphyst wrote:

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dpaton, thanks - your solution would work perfectly, IF the mic didn't need a 96 volt (±48) power supply

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Mics run off of a single ended +12 to +48V. Only very espteric mics run at any level above that, and are exceusively single ended, for all intents and purposes. AC on a mic power line would cause all kinds of havoc, since it would need to be a non-commonmode signal superimposed on themusic, which would destroy the low noise nature of it's balanced interconnection. Phantom power is applied to pins 2 and 3 equally, through a pair of 6.8k resistors. The ground is obviously, pin 1, ground. Because the DC is common mode, the mic preamp doesn't see it. Most mic preamps also have DC blocking capacitors in them,which block the DC phantom voltage very nicely.

-dave

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