Balanced Y RCA into unbalanced RCA cable

[garage inc.]

Is there any problem using a balanced RCA "Y" adaptor 1 female to 2 males into an unbalanced RCA cable with male ends. So I guess the balanced y adaptor has the shielding grounded at one end, & the unbalanced cable shielding is grounded at both ends so mixing these two cables together would this cause a signal problem. I am Y-ing out of pre out/main in, right & left & I have monster balanced rca y cables & only standard interlink unbalanced rca cables.

 

[JoeESP9]

RCA cables are not balanced.

What you're asking will cause no problem. Lots of folks use RCA Y adaptors to double preamp outputs.

 

[goodolpg]

There may be some hybrid cables with RCA on one end and balanced on the other, is that what you have?
If you can make it work it will most likely be fine.
EXCEPT THE SIGNAL IS NO LONGER BALANCED.
Still ok to use, you just lose that benefit.

 

[garage inc.]

RCA cables are not balanced.

What you're asking will cause no problem. Lots of folks use RCA Y adaptors to double preamp outputs. Of course you can Y out of pre out main

There may be some hybrid cables with RCA on one end and balanced on the other, is that what you have?
If you can make it work it will most likely be fine.
EXCEPT THE SIGNAL IS NO LONGER BALANCED.
Still ok to use, you just lose that benefit.

What do you call a RCA cable whose shield is grounded at one end with multiple conductors versus a single conductor RCA cable with a grounded shield at both ends?

 

[goodolpg]

Could you give a name/brand and maybe post a picture?
So far I only have limited knowledge and my imagination to go on, neither of which is all that great.
My AQ Diamondback cables have the internal wiring composition to support either RCA or XLR balanced usage/cable ends.
Since there are RCA's on both ends on my cables they are RCA cables, even though they COULD be used as balanced with the appropriate cable ends, perhaps that is what you have?
This may be wrong, but RCA ends = RCA cables, XLR ends = balanced
RCA on one end and XLR on the other is a hybrid/adaptive non balanced type.

 

[twiiii]

It depends on whether you are using transformer isolated out puts or SS differential out puts. If you are using SS outputs all you need to do is have the ground connection and summed output of the positive pin of the XLR connector. The question is which is the positive pin, 2 or 3. Us manufactures use one pin the orientals some times one pin some times the other. There is also another issue. If the balanced out put is only designed to drive. a medium impedance load say above 5000 ohms, then connecting one channel to the other loads both down by having lower output impedances of the source tied together making if difficult to develop full output voltage before distorting.. So you should not use a simple wye adapter, the channels should be summed and matched before driving the load or input . Thats either done passively with resistors which reduce the level or with transformers or with active SS circuits. Its your choice. Good transformers are expensive, SS is probably the best. option. RDL makes some modules that will do the job.

Ever wonder when using old pre amps and switching from stereo to mono the level drops. Its because they just used resistors and didn't add an extra small stage of amplification to bring the levels back up in the mono mode. Yes the ambient part of the signal went away too, but that could have been corrected also.

 

[JoeESP9]

What do you call a RCA cable whose shield is grounded at one end with multiple conductors versus a single conductor RCA cable with a grounded shield at both ends?

It's simply an unbalanced RCA cable. An RCA cable has two paths for signal transmission. They are signal and ground. The number of individual wires and how they may be shielded makes no difference.

Properly connected XLR connections are balanced because they have 2 signal wires plus a ground (that's three discrete conductors.. All three of these wires are independent. This type of connection drives a balanced input because it has a Plus and Minus along with a ground. It's impossible for a single RCA connector to deliver a balanced anything. There are only two conductors.

 

[whoaru99]

There may be some hybrid cables with RCA on one end and balanced on the other, is that what you have?
If you can make it work it will most likely be fine.
EXCEPT THE SIGNAL IS NO LONGER BALANCED.
Still ok to use, you just lose that benefit.

Yeah, there is no such thing as balanced connection using an RCA connector (well, I could provide an obscure example but it would only cloud the matter at hand). It may be constructed with shielded twisted pair and all that but with a single RCA plug it cannot be a balanced connection even if it has an XLR on the other.

You'd be just inputting an unbalanced signal to a balanced input, which is certainly possible. I've done it on any number of times connecting a ubalanced/RCA output into the XLR/balanced input of a pro amp.

 

[lini]

What do you call a RCA cable whose shield is grounded at one end with multiple conductors versus a single conductor RCA cable with a grounded shield at both ends?

"Pseudo-balanced" - and in case of phono use not rarely also "stupid", as the capacitance will most usually be higher than with a regular, low-capacitance coax cable type with just one inner conductor.

Greetings from Munich!

Manfred / lini