Why not go balanced and use adapter cable (as recommended by Bruno)? That way you can accommodate balanced sources in the future.
-
WANTED: Happy members who like to discuss audio and other topics related to our interest. Desire to learn and share knowledge of science required. There are many reviews of audio hardware and expert members to help answer your questions. Click here to have your audio equipment measured for free!
DIY 2ch NC400, is it really as easy as it looks?
- Thread starter day7a1
- Start date
Why not go balanced and use adapter cable (as recommended by Bruno)? That way you can accommodate balanced sources in the future.
Which adapter cable?
OK gotcha, so something like this should work just fine?
https://www.amazon.com/Monoprice-XLR-Male-RCA-Cable/dp/B001VLW398
You forgot to connect analog gnd - shield at RCA side. If RCA unit is class II, issues with CMV and hum/ buzz to be expected for sure.
We speak about unbalanced to balanced connection and your statement above is then true only in a trivial case that both instruments are in class I and thus there is a common gnd. If you connect class II to class I, potential difference as half of mains voltage may be expected, though at high impedance. And impedance imbalance as well. The Rane suggestion is plainly wrong and would work only if 2 units grounds interconnected elsewhere, like by PE wire in class I instruments. I believe you know this. I have many times experienced this wrong SE-bal cable interconnection without gnd wire used, resulting in hum/buzz or worse damaged input by excessive CMV voltage. And the designers seemed to not understand why. So it goes.
So don't buy the monoprice cable then? I have a Schiit saga preamp, which I bought 8 months ago and I really do like it. Since this is getting very expensive for me, getting a freya S with the balanced outs is a tough pill to swallow. What is the best way to connect the saga to the Hypex monoblocks? Samson S-convert?
The cable is OK as long as it is correctly connected. No need to get anything expensive, definitely not any sort of converter.
Here is how Bruno recommends doing it:
Bruno is right, he has the reference path. Your recommendation was incorrect. It would work like this:
No idea how the monoprice cables are connected, but if they are correctly connected, you should not need any modifications.
I built some IcePower modules in a Ghent case. It was very easy, just take your time and double check everything, See my impressions here:
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...ew-of-ghent-icepower-125asx2-module-amp.9678/
I would absolutely do this again unless I wanted some specific feature from the amp.
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...ew-of-ghent-icepower-125asx2-module-amp.9678/
I would absolutely do this again unless I wanted some specific feature from the amp.
Sorry to be a pest, but do you have a link to a cable that you know for sure is put together properly?
No, as I make my own cables, but it is easy to check with a $15 multimeter.
Below is the schematic of the Monoprice cable you referenced in post #24. It matches the schematic of the adapter cable recommended by Bruno (see post #32). Therefore, the Monoprice cable is exactly what you need.
