Balanced vs Unbalanced Cables: What's The Difference? 

I am 55 years old. I have learned more from Colin's channel in the past 2 weeks (I only found out about the channel 2 weeks ago) than I have from any other source in the 40 years I've been playing guitar. One of the best channels on RU-vid! Great work, Colin

Very well done per usual, Colin! Probably more impactful than our own explanations, which lack a Scottish accent.

I miss u Papa

If you, for example, have to run your pedal board far away from your amp (say, your amp has to be off stage because you brought a 4x12 and a rolling rack to a postage stamp sized stage), there are boxes that convert instrument unbalanced to balanced and back again so you dont start blasting the local AM station through your cab. Radial makes one, but other brands are available.

i've watched coutnless videos on this topic, yet this is the first time i'm walking away confident that audio system isn't going die from multiple , catastrophic body system failure, and set my house on fire, thank you so much for explaining WHY this ballanced vs un-ballanced thing works

I have heard this explained over countless (and much longer) videos and walked away still not completely understanding the idea. This was very clear and to the point. Thanks Colin. You are the man! ALL THE GAIN!

"Black Spaghetti", sounds like a metal band featuring just a bunch of squiggly lines as a band logo lol

Thanks, Colin. Your explanations are some of the best on RU-vid and that includes from the dozens of engineers with their own channels. Great stuff!

I remember a few years ago I was in school and we could randomly hear our local radio station coming from somewhere and everybody in the room got really confused. Then we traced the sound back to the source and I had left my guitar on a stand next to the amp and it had started picking up the radio. We started wanting this to happen more often but every time we tried it never happened.

You have no idea how long I've been waiting for this. Cheers

Hi Colin, you forgot a very important point, which apparently very few people know. When dealing with a JACK balanced output a lot of people don't care and connect to it using a normal balanced cable to get out the signal. This, depending on how the output is made can be very dangerous for the output circuits and this can be divided into 3 differnt cases: 1) output circuits coupled by audio signal transformers: No problem at all, one side of the transformer will be connected to the ground of the unbalanced cable and the other one to the signal out. 2) output active circuits (mostly operational amplifiers) wich has in series output resistances: the 180° shifted output will be shorted through this resistance to the ground, this, depending on the value of the output resistance (10 to 47 Ohm) can be dangerous for the operational amplifier, the smallest the resistance the worst. 3) output active circuits (mostly operational amplifiers) which has not a series output resistance: this will almost surely destroy the output of the operational amplifier which does the phase inversion as the inverted pin is shorted directly to ground. This is not very common, only very badly designed devices can suffer from this but it happens. One example come to mind, the cheap studio compressor Art Pro VLA, plug a balanced jack -> output fxxked. To sum up: When you have to connect a balanced output to an unbalanced input ALWAYS USE BALANCED CABLES! this will always save you from shorting one of the phase shifted output! Spread this bit of knowledge, there are so many people that damage their expensive stuff because nobody told them that. Keep up with your good work, Andrea

Excellent overview of this. Short, sweet and very informative.

Thanks so much Colin!!! I just got some TRS to XLR adapter cables and replaced the 1/4" instrument cables I was running between my Line 6 HX Stomp and my PA speakers. It completely killed the hum and now they're totally silent when I roll the volume all the way off on my guitar. This video was super helpful.

This is great information, really well presented. Thanks so much, dude! Subscribed!

Well done Colin! A topic rarely covered! Helpful to many and thanks for sharing brother!

Never thought of this. Thanks for the info Collin!😎👍

Excellent description! Thank you. You just made this VERY simple. (Love the graphics!!!) Thanks for sharing.

This is very helpful and cleared up some confusion for me. I just got the new Line 6 HX Stomp and, due to the small footprint of the unit, it has 1/4" outs but not XLR. The 1/4" outs are balanced if a TRS cable is used so it looks like all I need are a couple TRS to XLR adapters to be able to use XLR cables.

Well done, Colin. Another simple to understand explanation of how stuff works.

Thank you Colin for spreading the knowledge in such simple ways so anyone can understand! These videos are awesome! You are awesome :D

another brilliant explanation. Cheers Colin

Shit. I literally just got home from a seminar where the topic was "EMC/EMI" and it was said that all conductors are inherently antennas...spooky

Who else wants to go over to this guys house and have a sleepover with an N64?

Everytime I research something and see your face on an explanation video, I smile and have more fun with that topic immediately. Thanks, mate!

So well-explained! Thanks man!

The exact video I've been looking for. Thank you sir.

Thanks Colin. Was getting a nasty hum from my monitors from when I first hooked them up, saw your video, and bought balanced cables, and just like that, hum eliminated (and knowing how they work is a bonus as well!)

Wow such a clear information with graphics thank you

They both work n sound pretty good... Just need a bit more gain... N Less mids...

The main advantage of balanced cables and wiring systems, are simply “common mode rejection”, which for those who don’t know is the fact that any noise induced on both leads (hot& cold) which would be by nature unwanted, are cancelled out when they reach the input of the board or mic pre amp!

Colin,this is a great and useful video. Thanks!

So so helpful. Thank you.

After so many RU-vid videos, it was at 2:30 I had my AHA! moment! Thank you so much, Colin!

This was an incredibly good explanation, thanks!

This is a well made video. I knew nothing about this and now i do. I like videos where every second actually teaches you somethin as apposed to 99% of yt videos where 2 minutes is lost telling the audience why the youtuber wants to make the video, what his/her pets names are and really just repeating what is already clear from the title. So therefore i had extra time sharing my views on a well produced video. Cheers!

This is great, I had no idea what that meant or where to find out.

Thanks for the info Colin

awesome video, I never understood this until now!

Well thanks for that! Always been a curiosity but never researched it.

Great explanation, thank you!

Great explanation!

Thanks for this info Colin. I feel slightly smarter then normal because I was able to figure out the end result the moment you mentioned the phase cancellation.

Good video man, love getting educated by you tbh

Awesome., its why i use TRS balanced cables for my studio recordings..thanks

I had no idea there was even a difference. Thanks for allowing me to learn something new!

Very good clean explanation

Thank you my friend you answered a lot of my questions I am a bedroom player and I was thinking of using a balanced cable to connect a pedal to my amplifier because the pedal has a balanced connection and it also has a normal connection Thank you

Balanced vs Unbalanced Audio explained in this video ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-DlWviGa8GEk.html

Fantastic explanation

Thank you so much for making this video. Broke it down enough for a noob like myself to understand. God Bless!

Great vid. Thanks mate

Thanks for the rundown, Pippin. :-)

Great explanation

very helpful, thank you!

Very well explained.

Thanks Colin! I didn't even know that I needed to know this.... If that makes sense :)

Amazing video thx man

Great Vid!

Aww yesss gimme that knowledge Colin 🤘

Perfect explanation i found👌👍🤗👏👏👏👏

Thanks alot man!

well explained. straight to the point. 🍻

Great video, only getter better. One day the quality would be so good that us mortals would have no way of watching :) A while back you did a video about making patch cables and you said you used double shielded coaxile cables, do you remember what comoany?

Thank you!!!

I have experimented with balanced guitar wiring since my E-Mu Tracker Pre audio interface has high-impedance balanced inputs. It doesn't worth the effort, with only a few decibels are being gained in exchange for cable rattle noise. I personally recommend to get a better unbalanced cable alongside with upgrading your guitars' shielding (copper foil in every cavity possible, etc).

I needed this info two weeks ago but I manage to google it myself. However, this is the first time I hear that the same principle is used by Humbucking Peckups.

If only the folks in music shops gave such useful and important advice when first buying cables1

this video changed my life, really

Could you do a video on the differences from live picks ups and normal ones?

Very well done, easy to understand. Can I use an unbalanced cable in a balanced jack (TRS plug in a TRRS jacK). Thanks

Thanks!

Great video and explanation! Is there a reason why guitars, pedals and amps aren't designed to take advantage of balanced cables? It seems to me that if they were, it would be a great improvement in noise cancellation.

Every day's a school day ! Thank you

Fantastic video, I actually understand the difference now! What type would you recommend going from the output of a modeler into the input of a power amp? I was thinking about going for a TRS or XLR cable but not sure which would be best.

Fantastic tip video as always, Colin! Just out of curiosity, what about multiple patch cables between multiple guitar pedals, (more than 5?). Does it depend more on cable material, quality, or just how many you have which can potentially pick up more outside noise?

I watched a youtuber once who somehow mixed their audio in a way that the signal was mono but it was output in stereo but with flipped phase. It sounded fine on computers but on mobile phones with one speaker, the stereo got mixed back to mono, and cancelled out completely, leading to a lot of angry saying "Video is silent" and "What are you talking about? It's fine."

Phase and polarity inversion are different. Phase inversion is like very very short delays relative to two audio signals, polarity inversion like you said completely flips the voltage upside down. This only becomes important when really getting into it but I have a feeling that it could potentially confuse some.

Important to note that pro-level PA equipment used to successfully run unbalanced signal down 100+m multicore snakes and still regularly run balanced signals down similar lengths. Quality of equipment goes a long way... figuratively and literally

Best explanation

Thank you, I finally understood what balanced cables are !

Really great information.What are Colin's education degrees and credentials?

Finnaly someone explained it in a simple way!

good job.

1:40 Well, yes and no - technically, the more important thing (as far as noise rejection is concerned) is that the *impedances*, both source and load, are matched. Whether there's an anti-phase signal on the "cold" line isn't necessary / essential. ... But then again, i admit, i AM a bit of a nitpicker :P

0:45

That makes perfect sense. In my own case, my guitar cables are only 2 meters long. Whereas, the distance between the amps and the sound desk can easily be 40 metres, and then another 40 metres from the sound desk to the stage monitors. 40 metres gives a lot longer span to pick up interference, as opposed to the 2 metres from my pedalboard to the amp, and the another 2 meters from the pedalboard to the amp. 2 metres almost seems negligible when compared to 40 metres.

I have picked up am RAIDO on my amph intha background!!

is there any benefit to using TRS - XLR vs TRS - TRS in terms of quality? or is that just to accommodate the different requirements of different monitors?

In addition, there’s a relatively new transmission method known as Dante audio that uses cat5 (Ethernet) to transmit signals. This can obviously handle longer runs. I believe the limit of cat5 is around 100m

Is that good to use balance cable to record guitar soundtrack? and does it work to use balance cable to record guitar soundtrack as mono?

I think it should be mentioned that the polarity inversion isn’t actually done by the cable. It’s done by both the output of one device and the input of the other.

Colin, what flips the signal out of phase on the second conductor, with respect to the first conductor, at the beginning of the balanced cable run and what flips it back in to phase at the end?

Ooo, I loves a bit of Fizicks.

Why don’t you do a video about the Nyquist theorem? That should be pretty much fun to watch.

I want to know if there are any noticeable differences of balanced and unbalanced cable in using studio monitor speakers. Because my interface have RCA n my speakers have only balanced TRS and XLR input. Should I upgrade my interface for this?

which side of the cable does the switching of phase? or does the cable not do any phase switching but more of the device it plugs into that does the phase switching like a mixer?

i have a question for you? i just took in on trade a fender deville 4x10 combo and i,m getting a dirty sort of crack sound? and hiss is the due to the power from the plug or.... bad cable i,m using for cables 5 foot with 1 ground.and if it is power what does a power condtioner do? ty so much cheers from alberta canada.cheers love your channel.and ps.i,m using unbalenced cables so 1 ground black stripe if thatmakes any sense.

Sorry I should have said in the case of guitar leads, exchanging them for balanced leads will make no difference as they have no “common mode rejection” circuitry at the input of the guitar amp or pedal effect inputs. If you wished to take advantage of this effect you would need two tiny transformers one to fit at the guitar end to change the impatience from 10K ohms to 600 ohms and effectively split the electronics’ and float them through the transformer but still grounding the strings and metal parts to the screen. And a balanced transformer to fit at the amp end that changed the impedance back from 600 ohms with centre tap grounded, to about 50k ohms to the amp. This then becomes the same as a studio might use when connecting a guitar straight to the board, using what is called a DI box! Which contains similar type of circuitry. At “Antique and Vintage Sounds Studios” we use for instance the ETEK personal DI box from world wide music. Have fun.

I have a taylor acoustic with a very low output and people say that the quick fix to that is to use balanced cable. Is that correct? Thanks

fun fact, there were a small handful of balanced output electric guitar designs made over the years. they never caught on because the pickups needed to be wound with twice as many turns to make the same, now center tapped output, and needed a stronger magnet to make the strings audible to such a heavy coil. as a result, tone, price, and volume all suffered. with modern active pickups and built-in preamps in guitars, making an affordable, good quality balanced output guitar would be simple and easy, but guitarists probably aren't interested in buying a bunch of new TRS cables and compatible pedals to take advantage of a relativity minor reduction in noise compared to just using a better shielded unbalanced cable.