Balanced Line Cable Audio

The structure of a balanced audio cable is similar to an unbalanced cable with one addition.

Balanced line cable audio.

A balanced audio cable such as an xlr or trs is a mono cable. In audio you will typically see xlr cables connecting microphones to mixers and connecting various outputs to powered speakers. One signal is 180 degrees out of phase with the other. They are usually used for transmitting microphone or balanced line level signals.

The chief advantage of the balanced line format is good rejection of external noise when fed to a differential amplifier. Balanced connections typically use shielded twisted pair cable and three conductor connectors. This means that one of those wires is just the ground while the other two are responsible for carrying the audio signals. Balanced audio cables are much better for doing long cable runs because they are much less susceptible to picking up any noise or interference.

Remember the stage box and the multi core cable that runs to the foh console is just a fancy extension cord for audio. The cable can only carry one independent audio signal which is duplicated in opposite polarity described above. The balanced cable has two wires and a shield when it is used as a balanced mono cable then the same signal is run throug both the wires. However as the return line isn t driven you lose 6 db of signal and the circuit could cause more cross talk to adjacent circuits as we are not sending equal magnitude but.

It can also be used to feed a balanced cable and input via a trs plug. In telecommunications and professional audio a balanced line or balanced signal pair is a transmission line consisting of two conductors of the same type each of which have equal impedances along their lengths and equal impedances to ground and to other circuits. A balanced audio cable has a ground wire but it also carries two copies of the same incoming audio signal sometimes referred to as a hot positive and cold negative signal. This is what a microphone such as an sm58 does and why an xlr cable has 3 pins.

When the signals get to the interface or mixer input the signals are flipped and added to eachother. A 1 4 inch trs to xlr cable should be enough to connect it to the inputs of a mixing console. Balanced cables on the other hand have three conductors and three wires. Positive negative and ground.

The impedance balancing means that the balanced interference rejection on that circuit is retained. The diagram above shows how the cable works. Xlr connectors are 3 pin connectors. Balanced audio is a method of interconnecting audio equipment using balanced lines this type of connection is very important in sound recording and production because it allows the use of long cables while reducing susceptibility to external noise caused by electromagnetic interference.

The console should be able to accept your line level audio signal.