On 10/2/2018 10:43 AM, Ty Ford wrote:
I have an old Revox C279 desk with six preamps. I always liked the sound of the preamps and the desk has both pre and post fader outs, but they're unbalanced.
I can go from them to my A/D converter and into Pro Tools via light pipe and they sound nice, but I'm wondering how much if any difference there'd be if I used a good transformer to balance the signal before the A/D converter.
Why, for sure, you'd get the groovy/warm/full/punchy/gritty/saturated
transformer sound on everything you record through them. Take your pick.
Unless you have a serious EMI problem, adding transformers won't give
you any other enhancements. And if your converters have a differential
("balanced") input you could take advantage of their common mode
rejection by "Mackieizing" the mixer outputs. Measure the source
impedance of the output, replace the TS jack with a TRS jack, connect
the mixer output to the tip terminal of the jack, and connect a resistor
with a value equal to the output impedance between the ring terminal of
the jack and ground. Sleeve goes to ground, as usual, by the shortest
path possible.
This converts the mixer's unbalanced outputs to what's commonly called
"impedance balanced" outputs. But of course, balancing is really about
impedance - the tip and ring (or pins 2 and 3 of an XLR) don't both have
to have signal on them.
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