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does cable direction really matter

post #1 of 11
11/18/10 at 6:35pm
Thread Starter 

i have this RCA cable pair that i bought from radioshack a while ago and on the wire it shows a flow direction. one of the RCA plugs have a cracked prong, so i was planning on cutting off that end of the RCA plugs and soldering on some 1/4" plugs to use them as an unbalanced patch cable for my monitors. except the side that has the cracked rca prongs are from the source end of the cable. will it be alright for me to just cut off that end and use them in reverse direction? will be connected from PC>maverick audio D1>m-audio bx5a. thanks!

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post #2 of 11
11/18/10 at 6:46pm

Get your flame retardant suit on ;) Technically speaking, there would only be a difference if the shielding is only grounded on one end. Then you would hook that up to the equipment with cleaner ground, I think. Otherwise, there is no harm or detriment to signal with the cable "backwards". Let us know how it goes!

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post #3 of 11
11/18/10 at 8:08pm
Your plan will work fine.
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post #4 of 11
11/18/10 at 8:15pm

No, his plan will not work fine, but it has nothing at all to do with the directionality of the cable.

 

If he has the M-Audio BX5a, which I also have, the only inputs on the monitors are balanced connections, either XLR or TRS.  He cannot use an UNBALANCED patch cable to connect to the speakers.  The connection must be balanced.

 

If he wants to make an unbalanced to balanced connection, he needs to make sure the cable is soldered properly, however the line level of an unbalanced source is usually around 2V and a balanced source is around 4-5V.  The amps inside the speakers are known to be problematic, as I have a faulty one on my left channel which needs to be sent in for repair.  M-Audio will even admit to this.  Don't get me wrong, I love my BX5a and they sound great, but I wouldn't hook it up in a manner it's not meant to be used in.  If a problem results because of it, it will not be covered under warranty.


Edited by IPodPJ - 11/18/10 at 8:22pm
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post #5 of 11
11/19/10 at 5:03am
Thread Starter 

what options are there then? I'm confident with soldering tools so if theres some kind of circuit i could build to add balanced audio? or maybe buying a passive DI box and wiring it directly to the D1?


Edited by CommanderZero - 11/19/10 at 7:36am
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post #6 of 11
11/19/10 at 10:16am

You can buy a balancing transformer if you want to go the passive route, or buy an unbalanced to balanced converter that uses op-amps if you want to go the active route.

 

You didn't know these speakers only accepted balanced inputs before you bought them?

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post #7 of 11
11/19/10 at 4:57pm
Thread Starter 

Edited by CommanderZero - 11/19/10 at 5:06pm
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post #8 of 11
11/19/10 at 5:05pm
Thread Starter 

no i knew, but i thought that it would be okay to just use a TR plug and connect it to an unbalanced signal. ive read that that was how a lot of other people connected their BX5a to unbalanced sources. unless theres a difference between the BX5a and its deluxe version (which i have)? i even remembering reading somewhere that the TRS port on the bx5a do support an unbalanced signal by using a TR plug? it even says so in the specs page of the m-audio website?

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post #9 of 11
11/19/10 at 5:41pm

Yes, I have the Deluxe version too.

 

If it says so on the M-Audio website than you should be fine.  I wasn't aware of that.

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post #10 of 11
11/19/10 at 7:35pm

Interesting, I just read it.  Apparently you can use the TRS input for unbalanced.  The input impedance is 10kohm unbalanced and 20kohm balanced.

The XLR input is balanced only.

 

I wonder why they don't specify that on the back of the speaker.  They provide a diagram on the speaker which shows where the +, - and GND correspond to on the XLR pins and TRS parts (tip, ring, sleeve), but that only applies to balanced.

 

This is news to me, but very good to know.

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post #11 of 11
11/19/10 at 10:06pm
Thread Starter 
Good to know you learned something new through my problem smily_headphones1.gif
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