Not a minute too long and a very hands on instruction. I actually like that the techical "overflow" is left out (like an explanation what makes a balanced connection balanced and why popping noises are avoided) very good. Even though its always better to understand the technicality of a good audio setup, if everything you wanna know is how to hook everything up properly, there you have it!
also, these are powered speakers..so using longer unbalanced cables is probably going to be more forgiving than passive speakers. Personally, i would never use 25ft unbalanced cables.. but i guess it works in your example because the speakers are getting amplification right at the speaker. If the mixer was feeding an amp(s) and then the amp was feeding passive speakers, then you are going to introduce a heck of a lot of noise with 25ft unbalanced. I'd never exceed 6ft in that scenario.. (but also depends on the amp. Inexpensive amps may introduce much more noise than the more expensive ones which make use of high quality capacitors to filter out the noise before hitting the output stage)
Thanks for the add-on. For sure, we can find all kinds of times when balance is a better option, but that's why keeping it simple is more guide than rule.
