I am setting up a boss me 25 with a alesis multimix 6 usb. I have never really used balanced cables before and I was wondering, if you plug a stereo 6.5 mm jack to xlr cable into the me-25, would it work as a balanced cable? Also, If you use a stereo 6.5mm jack to jack lead and put a stereo plug to xlr socket adaptor, would the lead work as a balanced lead?
I actually have no experience with balanced cabling and I am also not sure if I need to use the EQ on the channels to control the phrase bands?
Pedantic I know but, there is no such thing as a "balanced" cable well, not for audio anyway!
There has to be a balanced system, both output and input must be of the correct electrical format to produce balance. Then, for the home recording bod there is little advantage in balanced connections, the only advantage is the reduction of induce hum and that is unlikely to be a problem for signals above a few tens of millivolts and from an adequately low source impedance (say 1k, better 100Ohms). Best also not to run audio lines alongside anything carrying 50Hz or high current audio, speaker lines say, but you wouldn't do that even if they were balanced if you had any choice would you?
The DISadvantage of a balanced system*, especially as it gets ever more complex, is the danger of a phase flip. In the normal course of recording events this can easily be missed and I would advise anyone with more than just a few balanced lines to build a phase flipping check box. Fortunately, most "procumer" audio gear has "impedance balanced" outputs and done correctly these are fine and have the great merit that if you get the connection wrong you get nowt out!
*They are also measurably noisier than a well designed unbalanced input but not so bad as the like of we would notice!
Balanced audio cables?
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