Balanced / unbalanced cabling question

[yanusch]

Hey you all,

Mayby this is not the right forum for this but you guys are technical so i think i get the best answer here.

I have a focusrite 2i2 interface which has 2 (balanced?) line jack outputs. I want to connect 2 Yamaha HS7 monitors to them but i don't have balanced jack cables.

Can i damage the monitors if i just use regular (short do reduce noise) guitar cables. I also have 2 speaker cables from my amp cabinet but i don't think they are balance because they had mono jacks?

The thing is i can't find jack to jack balanced cables and my focus rite only has a jack input no XLR (the yamaha's has jack  out and XLR).

Any advice on this? just spend a lot of money on the monitors so i don;t want them to blow up in smoke

Thnx!

[Rodgre]

You can get away with standard TS, non-balanced guitar cables to hook up your powered monitors. The drawback is that you'll lose a little volume, but you'll otherwise be fine. You cannot use unshielded speaker cable, however. 

Roger

[PRR]

Get TRS (balanced) cables.

The HS7 inputs are balanced (or can be used unbalanced).

The 2i2 outputs "may" tolerate an unbalanced (tip & sleeve) plug, or it may object to being shorted on one side. The effect of a short may not show up until very loud peaks or extended use.

Cables are cheaper than interface repairs.

Even cheaper if you can solder good.

[blackieNYC]

+1. Some balanced devices don't like to have half the balanced signal grounded. Most do.
You have a means of volume control? Had to ask.

[ashcat_lt]

DIY cabling is only actually cheaper if you already have all the stuff or are doing a whole bunch, and even then only if you don't value your time too highly.  I only bill $15/hr, but there's a 1 hour minimum.  Add in a length of decent cable and reasonable connectors (bought without bulk discount because we only need about 20 feet and 4 plugs), and Amazon would bring me a pair of decent cables in two days and I could spend my time on other things. 

Now, if you're new and need practice soldering, there really isn't any better beginner project!

I have never had an instance where any reasonably modern gear has displayed any signs of distress - let alone damage - from a R>S short.  I have had more problems with leaving the ring floating, actually.

All that said, the balanced cables aren't that expensive and really are worth it.  They will help reject whatever radiation the computer is blasting, and can help with some ground loop situations as well.

[anotherjim]

A lot of balanced gear now is uses a design where  the cold (ring) isn't actively driven or can tolerate a prolonged short if it is. Furthermore, some automatically jack up their gain by 6dB when the cold is grounded. This type of output is fine with TS cable.

Also, we could RTFM and find "Either ¼" TRS (balanced) or TS (unbalanced) jack plugs can be used." with reference to those output jacks.

But I plus 1 - don't mess about - get balanced cable.

It's often more critical  to use balanced connects with your outboard music gear, particularly USB midi+audio stuff. USB doesn't seem to have the ground isolation that traditional 5pin DIN midi has. There's more opportunity for ground hum/noise when USB is involved together with unbalanced audio.