Head-Fi.org › Forums › Misc.-Category Forums › DIY (Do-It-Yourself) Discussions › Anyone use XLR to RCA interconnects?
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

Anyone use XLR to RCA interconnects?

post #1 of 26
1/10/10 at 5:26am
Thread Starter 
Hey folks,

I have my Buffalo 32 DAC with XLR outs and a SE TRS jack as well. In order to try to keep it as simple as possible, I decided against RCA outs. So I was thinking about making (or buying if they're readily available) some cables that would go XLR to RCA to feed my single ended amps. Is this a good or bad idea? Anyone have any experience doing this and/or have any particular cables they recommend? I did google search it and they exist... just not sure how they're wired though. Just to be clear, I would need female XLR to male RCA.

Cheers!

EDIT: I just saw this... could just get these and use regular RCA cables then... right?
Reply
post #2 of 26
1/10/10 at 5:34am
Wire unbalanced signal to balanced +, unbalanced ground to balanced ground. I would be hesitant to buying a pre-made pair for fear of balanced - being shorted to ground.
Reply
post #3 of 26
1/10/10 at 5:39am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by FallenAngel View Post
Wire unbalanced signal to balanced +, unbalanced ground to balanced ground. I would be hesitant to buying a pre-made pair for fear of balanced - being shorted to ground.
Yah... that was what I was thinking. According to the Neutrik website:
"Wired according to IEC 268-12: pin 2 = signal, pin 1 and 3: connected to ground."

Oh well... guess I'll have to roll my own. Unless anyone has any other better solutions.
Reply
post #4 of 26
1/10/10 at 12:17pm
maybe I'm one of the only ones to do this, but I'm standardizing on 1/4" trs connectors for unbal stereo.

rca's just plain suck. and mounting is twice the effort (2 holes instead of 1)

also the cabling is neater with 1 stereo TRS (using simple 3 wire shielded cable from belden). finally, no chance to get the left/right incorrect as tip is always left and you can't screw that up by putting red into black like with rca's (ever have to insert plugs 'blindly' in the back of a stereo rack where you can't see?)

and finally, its a lot easier (I think) to have insulated trs jacks than rca jacks.

I wish the world would give up on rca. rca is ok for lower end things but I would love to see TRS really catch on.

slight upgrade from this would be a pro audio 'standard' of having a TRS jack and a TS jack in pairs; so you can use 2 TS jacks for stereo or a single TRS to carry stereo. if you have both jacks installs, you now have 2 easy options. 3 if you consider that you can buy TS to rca female adapters that do a great job and get you that rca connector from the mono TS jack.

...just a 'plug' for my current scheme (lol!)
Reply
post #5 of 26
1/10/10 at 1:36pm
Thread Starter 
linuxworks - i like the idea, but if I want to feed some of the "less enlightened" equipment that I already have that takes RCA input, then I'm kinda screwed. It's kinda like dealing with the reality that the US never was able to switch to the metric system.

As I was thinking about this, it also occurred to me that I could use unisex XLR connectors and have the same cables take an unbalanced source to feed my balanced amp. This seems like better idea to me than wiring the amp to accept both. So much more clutter and chance for mistakes. Or maybe I'm just jaded since I still haven't had a chance to work on fixing my balanced beta's wiring for both balanced and unbalanced inputs and outputs.
Reply
post #6 of 26
1/10/10 at 2:19pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by FallenAngel View Post
Wire unbalanced signal to balanced +, unbalanced ground to balanced ground. I would be hesitant to buying a pre-made pair for fear of balanced - being shorted to ground.
Im not sure that shorting the output to ground like that will be so hot. It really depends how his gear is made.

Not knowing more about what may break, I would use the part was put on the DAC with the specific purpose of doing what he wants to do.
Quote:
Originally Posted by linuxworks View Post
maybe I'm one of the only ones to do this, but I'm standardizing on 1/4" trs connectors for unbal stereo.
it is already a standard for balanced audio. Sorry to say that you may be stepping on toes or mixing standards.

good luck to the first person who plugs a TRS-stereo RCA cable into the TRS balanced output of something.
Quote:
and finally, its a lot easier (I think) to have insulated trs jacks than rca jacks.
tons of people make isolated RCA's, tons of people make non-isolated TRS. Both are readily available.

The plan of running both signals down 1 cable does not allow for separate shields and RAPIDLY destroys channel separation.

As far as not switching channels is concerned, stereo over trs-trs cables makes switching channels or quick and dirty mono playback impossible without added switches. some people value this.
Quote:
I wish the world would give up on rca. rca is ok for lower end things but I would love to see TRS really catch on.
TRS has already caught on for something else.

Why not just use DIN? I feel like many of your arguments for the superiority of TRS have been applied to DIN as well. DIN already has accepted standards for audio transmission. Ignoring the formal standards of how DIN cables should be built the standard is "dont use DIN except for tonearm cables." The bottom line is that very very few people really care about the possible advantages of superior connectors when they will have to sell their expensive cables to implement them.
Reply
post #7 of 26
1/10/10 at 2:46pm
I've seen this many times on the typical pro audio gear you find in the non-xlr jack style. one jack would be wired for TRS stereo and the other would be mono for the tip=right (since tip-=left is the standard on stereo TRS). this is quite clever (not my idea, btw) and allows you choice in using 2 mono TS plugs or a single TRS.

nothing wrong with it. look at pro audio for many examples.

label the jacks and you've done all you need to to alert any users as to what the plug and jack pinouts are. simple. why are you so annoyed??
Reply
post #8 of 26
1/10/10 at 2:50pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by oneplustwo View Post
linuxworks - i like the idea, but if I want to feed some of the "less enlightened" equipment that I already have that takes RCA input, then I'm kinda screwed. It's kinda like dealing with the reality that the US never was able to switch to the metric system.
I have really simple adapters IF I need to convert my TRS jack to dual rca. works just fine for me and I have no problems finding adapters that are either molded or cable based, in both short and long cables.

a single plug to include 2 channels instead of 2 fumbly rca jacks.

and if you have to build a bunch of jacks and cables, its 2x the work to do rca males and females. I hate extra wiring!

I don't run long cables so 'balanced' is a waste of time for me. I like signal strength (fine) but you don't need balanced to get a 'hot' wire. send hot and attenuate on receive; you don't NEED balanced. most people don't. this is a most misunderstood thing by home consumers. they see the pro studios using balanced and think its a general fix for many things and I just don't agree that its as useful as people make it out. it does a few things well but home users almost never *need* balanced -anything-.

sorry for the rant but this balanced mania just gets out of hand.
Reply
post #9 of 26
1/10/10 at 11:13pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by oneplustwo View Post
EDIT: I just saw this... could just get these and use regular RCA cables then... right?
Am using this setup out of my Apogee.
Reply
post #10 of 26
1/10/10 at 11:31pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by dclancy View Post
Am using this setup out of my Apogee.
No probs given the - signal is shorted to ground?
Reply
post #11 of 26
1/11/10 at 4:57pm
Thread Starter 
these might do the trick:

HDMI Cable, Home Theater Accessories, HDMI Products, Cables, Adapters, Video/Audio Switch, Networking, USB, Firewire, Printer Toner, and more!
Reply
post #12 of 26
1/11/10 at 5:16pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by linuxworks View Post
you don't NEED balanced. most people don't. this is a most misunderstood thing by home consumers
it would be rather boring for many consumers if electrostatic headphone amplifiers didn't exist. They very much need balanced drive, or they well won't work.
Reply
post #13 of 26
1/11/10 at 5:17pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by oneplustwo View Post
EDIT: I just saw this... could just get these and use regular RCA cables then... right?
As already discussed, you wouldn't want to use one of those on the output of your DAC. But they should be appropriate for easily inputting a single-ended signal into most bridged/balanced/differential amps.
Reply
post #14 of 26
1/11/10 at 5:47pm
Thread Starter 
Thanks Beefy... that wasn't clear to me based on dclancy's comment.
Reply
post #15 of 26
1/11/10 at 6:01pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by luvdunhill View Post
it would be rather boring for many consumers if electrostatic headphone amplifiers didn't exist. They very much need balanced drive, or they well won't work.
I don't follow this; can you explain?

what about electro. drivers 'need' balanced drive? why can't they be driven by 2 SE ground-floating amp sections?
Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home
Head-Fi.org › Forums › Misc.-Category Forums › DIY (Do-It-Yourself) Discussions › Anyone use XLR to RCA interconnects?