Single Ended Balanced Cable

From cables circuitry and signal path amp design connections and more the differences between balanced and single ended design become increasingly important to understand due to their application the overall impact on the audio of your system and ultimately the impact on your wallet.

Single ended balanced cable.

You can generally tell if you have a balanced or single ended cable based on the connector at the end of the cable. For example we make adapters that convert the astell kern balanced 2 5mm plug to a 3 5mm plug for use with your phone or another device that only has a 3 5mm or 1 8 jack. The cable is not capable of carrying a balanced signal ts single ended trs connectors. Plug is the key with the above two concepts you should know that you can send 4 types of signal from the output amplifier for example via a cable to a pair of headphones.

So you can purchase a balanced cable and just switch out the headphone cord s for single ended or balanced listening as needed. A quarter inch trs cable is another balanced professional audio cable. Yes the cable braid must have at least four conductors to get the proper balanced signal to the headphones. Balanced cable types xlr.

Xlr cables have a 3 or 4 pin tip while trs cables have a quarter inch connector with two rings dividing the tip the ring x2 and the sleeve t r r s. This can also potentially damage your balanced amp depending on the design. The idea that balanced audio is better than single ended audio is a myth. For example if you use an adapter cable from a female or headphone jack to a balanced 4 pin xlr and connect this to a balanced amp you are essentially shorting to ground 2 legs of the circuit making the amp single ended.

It s important to know that balanced cables work better in some scenarios and single ended cables in others. Xlr cables can send balanced audio signals up to 200 feet. As you see in the diagram above there are three male pins inside the connector the groundwire the hot signal and the cold signal. Balanced cables typically have either xlr connectors or trrs connectors.

This can also potentially damage your balanced amp depending on the design. The term balanced can refer to cables signal path and circuitry of amps. For example if you use an adapter cable from a female 1 4 or 1 8 headphone jack to a balanced 4 pin xlr and connect this to a balanced amp you are essentially shorting to ground 2 legs of the circuit making the amp single ended. Besides replacing connectors is the type of actual cable different w balanced headphones.

This is not a problem at all as long as your main headphone cable is balanced then you can add an adapter cable.