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#1
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TS/TRS balanced/unbalanced can someone explain
I'm trying to figure this all out. Can someone explain it to me. This is
what I've figured so far, but I'm not sure if I'm correct. a TS (tip-sleeve) plug can only carry a mono signal which is unbalanced correct? A TRS (tip-ring-sleeve) plug is used to carry either a stereo signal with two unbalanced mono channels in the tip and sleeve, or a balanced mono channel (which utilizes both the tip and the sleeve for the one channel of sound), correct? Now, can someone explain to me what unbalanced/balanced means and also, what if would want to have a balanced stereo signal--is there such a thing? is there no need for that? As you can see, I'm confused. Help would be appreciated--thanks. |
#2
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TS/TRS balanced/unbalanced can someone explain
"TheKeith" wrote in message
I'm trying to figure this all out. Can someone explain it to me. This is what I've figured so far, but I'm not sure if I'm correct. a TS (tip-sleeve) plug can only carry a mono signal which is unbalanced correct? A TRS (tip-ring-sleeve) plug is used to carry either a stereo signal with two unbalanced mono channels in the tip and sleeve, or a balanced mono channel (which utilizes both the tip and the sleeve for the one channel of sound), correct? Now, can someone explain to me what unbalanced/balanced means and also, what if would want to have a balanced stereo signal--is there such a thing? is there no need for that? As you can see, I'm confused. Help would be appreciated--thanks. Please see: http://www.faqs.org/faqs/AudioFAQ/pro-audio-faq/ Section III - Audio Interconnections |
#3
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TS/TRS balanced/unbalanced can someone explain
Please see: http://www.faqs.org/faqs/AudioFAQ/pro-audio-faq/ Section III - Audio Interconnections thanks Arny--just what I needed |
#4
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TS/TRS balanced/unbalanced can someone explain
"TheKeith" writes:
I'm trying to figure this all out. Can someone explain it to me. This is what I've figured so far, but I'm not sure if I'm correct. a TS (tip-sleeve) plug can only carry a mono signal which is unbalanced correct? Correct. It's only got 2 conductors. A TRS (tip-ring-sleeve) plug is used to carry either a stereo signal with two unbalanced mono channels in the tip and sleeve, or a balanced mono channel (which utilizes both the tip and the sleeve for the one channel of sound), correct? Yup. Now, can someone explain to me what unbalanced/balanced means and also, what if would want to have a balanced stereo signal--is there such a thing? is there no need for that? As you can see, I'm confused. Help would be appreciated--thanks. Unbalanced signals are single ended. There's a signal lead an a ground. Balanced signals use 3 conductors--a ground, a signal lead, and another lead that carries the inverse of the signal (i.e. the signal 180 degrees out of phase). The benefit of balanced lines is in noise cancellation over long runs of cable--e.g. PA snakes carrying microphone level signals. Over such a long run, a low level signal like that will get mixed with plenty of 60Hz and 120Hz power line noise induced _common_mode_ (that is, fairly equally across all 3 conductors). A preamp for a balanced line uses either electronics or a transformer to do "differential amplification" of the signal+ and signal- conductors. It amplifies only the difference between those two lines. The beatuiful thing there is that is amplifies the differential mode signal (since signal+ - signal- gives you 2*signal), and nicely cancels out the common mode stuff (i.e. the 60Hz and 120Hz noise). Feel free to ask followup questions. If you picture and draw you the signal as a sine wave, and picture the "-" operation, you can envision how a differential amp would squash common mode stuff, and amplify differential mode stuff. Best Regards, -- /"\ ASCII Ribbon Campaign | Todd H \ / | http://www.toddh.net/ X Promoting good netiquette | http://triplethreatband.com/ / \ http://www.toddh.net/netiquette/ | "4 lines suffice." |
#5
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TS/TRS balanced/unbalanced can someone explain
"TheKeith" wrote in message ...
---snip--- either a stereo signal with two unbalanced mono channels in the tip and sleeve, or a balanced mono channel (which utilizes both the tip and the sleeve for the one channel of sound ---snip--- A TRS used for stereo, like say the plug on the end of a headphone cable, uses the sleeve (the longest part) as common or "ground", the ring for one channel's "hot" (usually the right) and the tip for the other channel's hot (usually the left). Someone once said that the nice thing about standards is that there are so many of them. You can't always count on different brand gear from different years agreeing on what goes to the tip and what to the ring, but I'm going to say that sleeve is almost always "ground" because I have yet (in nearly a half century) to see it not be, but remember, I only said "almost always". |
#6
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TS/TRS balanced/unbalanced can someone explain
Thanks everyone for your help. I see now, that for short distances, a
regular unbalanced connection will be just fine for my needs--that is to hook up a cheap mixer to my sound card so I can record sounds from an xlr mic. I'd been using a regular instrument cable (ts mono) with a 1/4" to 1/8" adapter on one end to make the connection and I wasn't sure if this was creating unwanted noise that could easily be eliminated with the simple use of a balanced cable. It sounds fine to me as it is but I was just curious if it could sound better. |
#7
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TS/TRS balanced/unbalanced can someone explain
unitron wrote:
"TheKeith" wrote in message ... ---snip--- either a stereo signal with two unbalanced mono channels in the tip and sleeve, or a balanced mono channel (which utilizes both the tip and the sleeve for the one channel of sound ---snip--- A TRS used for stereo, like say the plug on the end of a headphone cable, uses the sleeve (the longest part) as common or "ground", the ring for one channel's "hot" (usually the right) and the tip for the other channel's hot (usually the left). Someone once said that the nice thing about standards is that there are so many of them. You can't always count on different brand gear from different years agreeing on what goes to the tip and what to the ring, but I'm going to say that sleeve is almost always "ground" because I have yet (in nearly a half century) to see it not be, but remember, I only said "almost always". That said, the way most phone jacks are constructed, a designer would have to go to great lengths to safely use the sleeve for anything but ground, so I doubt you'll _ever_ see it. -- The e-mail address in our reply-to line is reversed in an attempt to minimize spam. Our true address is of the form . |