Quick Balanced => Unbalanced Conversion

Archived from groups: rec.audio.pro (More info?)

On Sat, 07 Aug 2004 22:47:43 -0400, Michael Dombrowski
<legodudenein@hammycorp.com> wrote:

>Having a piece of balanced gear(D/A converter) that I want to connect to
>my preamp/amp but not wanting to pay for a balanced/unbalanced converter
> box lead me to hook up a pair of headphones to the + balanced out and
>ignoring the - balanced out. This seemed to work just fine, any real
>reason to not go this route when I wire up the cable for real? I'm only
>using short cable runs so noise shouldn't be a problem. Only thing that
>comes to mind is that the signal strength might be reduced by half, but
>my preamp/amp should be able to take care of that, no?

The standard way of unbalancing a connection is to use the +, tie the
- to screen. Don't worry about the level.

CubaseFAQ www.laurencepayne.co.uk/CubaseFAQ.htm
"Possibly the world's least impressive web site": George Perfect

Archived from groups: rec.audio.pro (More info?)

On Sat, 07 Aug 2004 22:47:43 -0400, Michael Dombrowski
<legodudenein@hammycorp.com> wrote:

>Having a piece of balanced gear(D/A converter) that I want to connect to
>my preamp/amp but not wanting to pay for a balanced/unbalanced converter
> box lead me to hook up a pair of headphones to the + balanced out and
>ignoring the - balanced out. This seemed to work just fine, any real
>reason to not go this route when I wire up the cable for real? I'm only
>using short cable runs so noise shouldn't be a problem. Only thing that
>comes to mind is that the signal strength might be reduced by half, but
>my preamp/amp should be able to take care of that, no?

Short answer, it depends. (the Bob Dole answer)

I have this url memorized: http://rane.com/note110.html

>Thanks
>Mike

-----
http://mindspring.com/~benbradley

Archived from groups: rec.audio.pro (More info?)

In article <kb1ch0loftgusqf3al222nuiqm35t01o2f@4ax.com> l@laurenceDELETEpayne.freeserve.co.uk writes:

> The standard way of unbalancing a connection is to use the +, tie the
> - to screen. Don't worry about the level.

This works all the time if the output is from a transformer. In fact,
that's the right (and really only) way to do it. However this isn't
the only way to build a balanced output. There, in fact, many ways to
build an active-balanced output. If it's one where the low side is
created by running the high side through an inverter, on good days all
you'll do by grounding the low side is increase distortion and reduce
the maximum output level of the high side. On bad days, you could
damage the IC that's driving the low side of the output.

No rules, until you know which game you're playing.

--
I'm really Mike Rivers (mrivers@d-and-d.com)
However, until the spam goes away or Hell freezes over,
lots of IP addresses are blocked from this system. If
you e-mail me and it bounces, use your secret decoder ring
and reach me here: double-m-eleven-double-zero at yahoo