what's the advantage of having Balanced inputs?

[Ralph khoury]

Hey guys, i was wondering about the difference between balanced and unbalanced inputs, and how much could it affect my recordings? lets say i am buying a protools digi 002 rack, will i be able to connect the balanced outs of the POD XT PRO to the digi 002 and would that be to the mic inputs of the unit instead of the line in/instrument one?

[Mr.WizardNeck]

Balanced I think means stereo. Not sure. Im a noob.

[Ralph khoury]

no its not. it has a difference in the decibels.

[Andelusion]

Less chance of clipping I think, although I'm also a noob XD

[bduersch]

Um, I think all those explanations are wrong. The link below describes it in the simplest terms I could find, but to put it even simpler, balanced cables provide a means of noise cancellation that can result in a greater signal to noise ratio. In order to take advantage of balanced inputs, you need balanced cables (TRS or XLR cables) and a device with balanced outputs.

http://www.wpi.edu/Academics/Depts/H...bal-unbal.html

--B

[S-man]

^^^exactly

[elcid]

I was hoping more people would blindly guess before we got a real answer.

Here's mine, a balanced input means the input side of the cable and the output side weigh the same. Whereas Unbalanced cables both side are a different weight, this is too help you be able to make sure you plug the input in the right jack and the output in the right jack.

[bduersch]

Or perhaps you can only used balanced ins & outs if the gear you are connecting weighs the same amount... So you would be safe using balanced cables to connect two similarly-sized pieces of rack gear; but if you use balanced cables to connect a microphone (small) to a 24-channel mixing console (big), the excess matter from the mixing console would travel through the balanced cable until equilibrium is reached... the point at which the microphone and the console become the same size. Many a singer has been accidentally popped in the mouth by rapidly-expanding microphones when their sound guy inadvertantly reached for the wrong cable. I've even heard a story about a guitar player plugging his Strat into a Bassman 4x10 with a balanced cable, and the subsequent transfer of amplifier matter back to the guitar caused the guitar to expand in weight so rapidly that it snapped the guitar player's neck. True story.

This unusual phenomenon of physics is prevented by using unbalanced cables, which have a unique atomic filter that only allows electrical waves to travel the length of the cable, ensuring that no mass transfer takes place.

--B

[elcid]

That makes more sense than what I though, good job clarifying.
My second pointless guess was going to be apple pie.

[Ralph khoury]

Thx a lot Bduersch for the infromation, does anyone know if the Digi 002 rack has balanced ins?