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BALANCED vs. UNBALANCED

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Old 04-24-03, 11:24 AM
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Pianoman72
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Default BALANCED vs. UNBALANCED

Can you take a balanced signal and convert it to unbalanced? My headunit uses a low-level "balanced" signal (+, - , and ground wire for each channel) and I want to be able to use an aftermarket amp. Can amps use a balanced signal? I don't think they can but I haven't installed one before.
Old 04-24-03, 02:29 PM
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Percy
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Just make an adapter so that you can take the "+" and "ground" outputs. This should do fine since it's similar to "single ended" RCA outputs. XLR outputs have the +, - and ground outs.

Percy
Old 04-24-03, 03:14 PM
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Pianoman72
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Percy, do you mean like this?
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Old 04-24-03, 03:48 PM
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engin_ear
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Default RCA Ramblings

Piano, I replied to your other post in more detail, but just for the record here:
Just use the (+) signal and ground. Not the (-). Your diagram does not reflect what he indicated. You've shown an RCA to XLR connection, in which the RCA is the source, and its ground is wired to the neg of the XLR. You need to ignore the (-) wire and just wire the (+) to center and ground to outer ring of RCA, just one wire to each. (If you were to show an XLR to RCA connection with the XLR as the source, HOT would go to center pin of RCA, GROUND would go to outer ring, and COLD would remain unconnected....)

It is trivial to make an unbalanced connection if you''re starting with a balanced one: Just don't use the (-) wire. It is much more difficult to make a balanced connection from an unbalanced one, because the inverted (negative) version of the original signal needs to be generated, and both (+) and (-) then need to remain perfectly 180 degrees out of phase with each other.
Old 04-24-03, 04:39 PM
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Got it. Won't use that (-). You guys are the best. I can't wait to see how it sounds. Thanks again for being so informative and helpful.
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