Many Questions: Balanced vs. Unbalanced / Cable Recommendations, etc.

[Hxd Ped]

Read your manuals. They will tell you what will support balanced and unbalanced cable.

From your pictures, it looks like you have a lot of unbalanced equipment. Just keep the cable runs short and you should be OK.

For the mic, just use an XLR to XLR cable. You can use it, so keep it simple.

As far as the brand of cable, it doesn't really matter. Cables don't have a "sound". The things that matter in cables are build quality, the type of shielding, and if it's star-quad or not. Build quality should be obvious. Foil shielding is best but are too fragile for your setup. Foil is for cables that get installed and left alone. Use cables with braided shielding. They're much more durable. Star-quad is a balanced cable, but not a big deal for your set up. I only use it if I'm expecting or having interferance problems.

One ting to keep in mind: The type of connector is pretty much meaningless. XLR cables can carry balanced or unbalanced signals. They can also be for analog or digital signals. So just becdause it's XLR doesn't mean it's analog or balanced. Only the manual can tell you for sure what is comming out of the jack. The same goes for TRS conectors.

[DmDfl1yh]

Thanks for the reply!

You've answered all my questions - and I comprehend!

One final question for you. If I have a lot of unbalanced connections (guitar to pedals, to mixer) but then the opportunity to use a balanced connection later in the line (say mixer to monitor), is it worth it? Or is that balanced cable at the end of the line simply passing along a signal that's already been tainted by anything that could harm unbalanced cable?

[savyurrecords]

I would go for all unbalanced. Look just cause it is unbalanced doesn't mean it sounds bad. It just means it might not be as good at rejecting noise. This noise rarely comes into play with normal 'bedroom' studios. Why? Because the cables are short.

I have audiophile friends who spend $100's on RCA (unbalanced) cables. They sound good to them.

Stop worrying so much and just hook it up!

[Hxd Ped]

Chances are your mixer and speakers will want balanced cables, so you should use them between the mixer and the speakers. I think the signal out of the mixer will be balanced by the mixer. I might be wrong, though.

If you know you're going to upgrade later, you could buy all balanced cable. They won't hurt anything, they'll just work as unbalanced cable and then you'll have balanced cable when you get balanced equipment. It's not a big deal, though. Not at this point.

[DmDfl1yh]

Thank you both for the excellent input!

I'll be purchasing unbalanced cables with braided shielding for the setup, and I'll check the pricing of a star-quad balanced cable for mixer to monitor. If it's not too much, I'll grab it. If it is, I'll simply go with an unbalanced cable for that as well unless I run into any interference or noise problems.