using balanced I/o from my board to the digi001

[ccstudios]

I was under the impression that the digi001 i/o's were all balanced so I bought 2 balanced snakes to connect my mackie 24-8 to the digi001 I bought on the same day. If I connect this using the balanced snakes the mixer will detect that I am using balanced i/o's right? but on the other end they are not balanced. should I return the sankes and just go unbalanced? from what I understand the only balanced i/o's on the digi 001 are the cheezy front mounted jacks which BTW I hate. they could have at least included those on the back. so will my sound be affected by using balanced TRS jacks that are balanced on the mixer end but not balanced on the digi001's end?

[where02190]

All the 1/4" i/o's are TRS balanced.

[dkrausz]

Outputs 3-8 and the S/PDIF i/o on the 001 are unbalanced.

Mains and mon outs 1&2 are balanced as well as inputs 3-8.

The main thing I noticed about using only balanced connections was a considerable decrease in line and RF noise.

dk

[ September 05, 2001: Message edited by: dkrausz ]

[ccstudios]

but if one end is balanced and the other is unbalanced will this create more noise? anyone know if I should play it safe and go unblananced all the way?

[WestPhillySoulzition]

No there will not be any additional noise to to using a balanced cable in a unbalanced jack. unbalanced combines the negative and the ground. unbalanced connections use both ring and sleeve combining the negative and ground. buy balanced just to have balancced if you need it in the future.

[ccstudios]

great! I got the 2 balanced snakes and am happy to know that there's not going to be any problem with using both. I just hope the digi001 knows what to do with all the signals coming in on the TRS, wont this mean that the 'ring' will have signal that will not be combined with the sleeve on the digi001's end? my mackie is sending 3 discrete signals for each cable and if the digi only has access to 2, wont this mean that the ring will have signal that wont make it to the digi001? Thanks for the input.

[kalle74]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:<HR>Originally posted by ccstudios:
my mackie is sending 3 discrete signals for each cable and if the digi only has access to 2, wont this mean that the ring will have signal that wont make it to the digi001? <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Your Mackie sends only one signal per cable. The 3 wires carry the following:
1. Ground
2. Signal, positive phase
3. Signal, negative phase ( phase is flipped in the receiving end to cancel out the noise that may have accumulated during the signal´s travel through the cable( RF noise and the like ))
If one of these ( most normally the negative phase, on the ring ) isn´t recognised by the receiving piece of equipment, the signal is called unbalanced.
All of the inputs on your 001 are balanced, though...

[img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[ccstudios]

thanks again and yes all the inputs are balanced, that is good to know. ythe outputs arent and I'm glad to hear mixing balanced and unbalanced in the same path wont hurt.

[ccstudios]

thanks again and yes all the inputs are balanced, that is good to know. ythe outputs arent and I'm glad to hear mixing balanced and unbalanced in the same path wont hurt.

[Doug Ring]

You will notice a difference in output level with channels one and two. They'll be higher than 3-8 if you're feeding them into balanced line inputs on your mixer. This bothered me until I remembered that one and two are balanced while 3-8 are not, so you get the full balanced output to input on one and two only. You may find you need more gain on mixer channels 3-8, but I haven't noticed any loss of quality.