[Share2Care]

Hey Peeps.

I am confused with myself and need some clarity on the basics of balanced components and cables.... And non balanced components and cables....

Say I bought an IEM MMCX balanced cable with a 3.5mm termination, if I just had a non balanced component such as a mobile phone as an example with a 3.5mm jack would the balanced IEM audio cable still work?

Would I need to change anything?

The same question can be reversed with a balanced source can be used with a non balanced headphone cable??

Please enlighten me as much as possible.

Cheers

 

[castleofargh]

consider a good old single ended cable will have 3 rings(TRS) jack. each side of the IEM still needs and has 2 contacts and so needs 2 wires. so what happens is that the wires are indeed 2 on one side plus 2 on the other, but somewhere in the cable(at the cinch or sometimes inside the plug), the 2 minus poles(or let's call them ground), are joined into a single one.

so what you can get from that information is that you can have a balanced cable(4contacts/wires) and join the 2 negative ones anytime you like to use on a single ended device. it will effectively be like any other single ended cables. in your case you'd most likely need an adapter plug to go from TRRS of your balanced cable to TRS of a single ended DAP or amplifier. but there is no danger at all, even if you were to try and plug the TRRS into a singled ended amplifier, worst case scenario, you will only get sound into one side. so balanced cable to single ended devices = cool, just get the adapter.

now using a single ended cable into a balanced amplifier, it's even easier. don't do it! never ever!
see? really simple.

 

[Share2Care]

Nice and to the point - just what was required to do the trick of Balance being recalled and restored fully.

Thank you kindly castle... Saved as a layman reference just in case....!

Cheers