DJBenjaminB, post: 41064, member: 11227 wrote: I’ve been doing a lot of reading about TRS balanced cables and all sort and I’m all a bit confused now. This is a silly question to anyone who knows better but I’m so muddled. I set traktor to mono output because i thought some of the gigs i do will be better with both the left & right channel sound coming out of both sides of my PA but now I’m left thinking what cables do i need for my controllers balanced master output to my power amp. I’ve read for a balanced cable you need a stereo TRS because it has an extra conductor? I don’t know!? Any advice is much appreciated i just want all the sound with no electronic noise coming through.
Hey,
If your controller has TRS (balanced) outputs, then you’ll want to use a balanced (TRS) cable to go to your amp or PA mixer. Provided they have that input. On many amps the input might be XLR (which is also balanced), so you’d need to buy a TRS (or 6.3mm Jack) to XLR (male) cable.
Since it is often easier to buy a XLR cable (they are way more common) of the appropriate length, you are better of getting those. What that length is only you can decide, but since they can be easily daisychained, it is easier to get a 5m and a 10m, so you can make three lengths (5, 10 and 15m). Some purist might say you lose a bit of signal strength at every coupling, but with line level signals that shouldn’t be too much of an issue for your purpose.
An example of the cables:
http://www.procab.be/ProductInfoDetail.aspx?pCD=CAB901
as you can see they come in all kinds of sizes. Be sure not to go cheapskate on cables though. Get pro-grade cables, preferably with Neutrik connectors. Stay away from cables where the connectors are “melted” onto the cable.
You’d still be facing the issue of how to connect to your controller, as you now have an XLR connector on either end. And if you have to run into a PA mixer at a venue it is highly likely it will have TRS inputs for stereo line channels too.
How to solve this? It is easy, get a male XLR/TRS and a female XLR/TRS adapter and you can make any cable type you want:
Jack – Jack (both adapters attached)
Jack – female XLR (only female XLR/TRS adapter attached)
Jack – male XLR (only male XLR/TRS adapter attached)
XLR – XLR (no adapters attached)
here are examples of the adapters:
http://www.procab.be/ProductInfoDetail.aspx?pCD=VC125
http://www.procab.be/ProductInfoDetail.aspx?pCD=VC120
Clearly you’d need two sets of each for stereo :).
Finally, for your question on mono or not. I think it isn’t the biggest issue. Since stereo is really only interesting if you have content (tracks) with lots of panning effects (not too much of that going around, especially these days) and you want the same sound all over the dance floor, there isn’t very much against mono. Matter of fact is that many club environments have mono PA’s. So I wouldn’t sweat it either way. When in doubt, trust your ears. Hook up your speakers, set the switch to stereo and have a listen on the dancefloor. Then switch to mono and listen again. Which sound do you prefer?
Hope this helps.
Greetinx,
C.
.
