[bloodyf8]

Greetings headfier

I planning to get powered active monitor speaker for listening music not for mixing/monitoring and my decision is kurzweil ks50a (it's more suitable/affordable for me also i like sound kind of flat or neutral)

currently i using a sony pcm d100 recorder as my portable dap , can i use this as source to ks50a? so i dont need to buy another desktop dac amp for the speakers , afterall i like my d100 sounding.
kurzweil ks50a using combo input xlr balanced and ts unbalanced , i found on marketplace a dual mono xlr or ts to 3.5mm cable , can i use this to connecting d100 to the speakers? which one should i get either xlr and ts plug?

my d100 have line out , line in and headphone out , which one should i use to connecting d100 to speakers?
i never using speakers/monitor speaker before and my knowledge about speakers also minimum.
i heard many bad things about connecting active speakers directly to dap or phone which will result dap or phone will be damaged due huge power from the speakers , is it true? is it safe to connecting my pcm d100 to the speakers? i dont want to harm my d100 since it's rare to get nowaday and also expensive.

thanks in advance

 

[Kazz123]

You should definitely use a line out. Active monitors don't need pre-amping, so the headphone out signal level will not be correct.

For the cable, a 3.5mm (aka mini-jack) line out -> double TS unbalanced (aka jack) would be easiest.

Stereo mini-jack -> 2x mono jack cables are fairly common, you can probably find one in an audio or electronics store. If you can't find one, it's very easy to make one from some connectors and cable if you have a soldering iron. If not, any radioshack-like place around where you live can probably help, if you or someone you know anyone who has any soldering skills, it's a half-an-hour job.

So you need something like this:

The balanced/unbalanced in this case makes close to 0 difference, as there would be almost no audible cable interference unless your cable is 10 meters long. Plus I'm not sure the Sony recorder has a stereo balanced out, which is understandable because it's not very necessary.

Of course if you do specifically want balanced, and if you DAP has a stereo balanced out, you can possilby buy a 4-pin 3.5mm -> 2x stereo XLR cable. Not sure how common they are but probably someone makes them. Or to make a custom one, you'd need a 4-pin mini-jack connector, and to know how to correctly separate the ground/hot/cold for each channel. I wouldn't recommend this because it's more hassle, as 4-pin mini-jack connectors are more of pain to solder.