I ran across an excellent article in Sound on Sound Magazine. It’s a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) regarding audio cabling.
It covers balanced, unbalanced, and pseudo-balanced cabling schemes, and helps get rid of some misconceptions regarding wires in an audio recording — or live performance — rig.
Check it out here: The Sound on Sound Audio Cables & Wiring FAQ. And if you’re into digital or analog recording, and aren’t subscribed to Sound on Sound… what are you thinking?
This page on cables also shows you some of the differences between balanced, pseudo-balanced, and unbalanced cabling. Basically, it boils down to:
- Unbalanced cabling tends to attract RFI (Radio Frequency Interference), which you perceive as a “hum”
- Balanced cabling avoids the hum, but requires balanced equipment at both ends (which often doesn’t happen in practice)
- Pseudo-balanced cabling reduces hum from an unbalanced connection, but is directional. Turntable RCA cables are usually pseudo-balanced; their method of balancing requires that little extra cable; if you ever had an external LP turntable, you know what this is. Nobody really sells pseudo-balanced cables en masse; you have to make them, and if you get them backwards, you’ll get a 6dBa droppoff in your amplitude.
SoundOnSound has another great article on how to create clear signals with your sound equipment. It even covers stuff like remembering to keep the ground spike wet around your home so that you have a solid ground connection! Very cool article; a real eye-opener.