"Scientific" prrof - balanced cable with Taylor ES

[Cochese]

They are the same because I matched the level which is quite easy to do with white noise vs actually playing. Also it was a recording of white noise which is why the signal would be the same. But if there really was a difference of tone due to the difference between balanced and unbalanced the wave forms would look different. The impedance would not change the tone in this application. The mic inputs on a Mackie are 1.3kOhm on the mic channels and 10K on the others. These are proper impedances. My Mackie mixers will have less output running unbalanced vs balanced as well. There is no difference in sound, you just need to run the output higher.

I don't know why people are so skeptical. It's more a gain staging difference than a tonal one. Has anybody been able to say how the tone is actually"better"? More highs, more lows, less mids, more mids?

[MikeBmusic]

Originally Posted by lschwart

Well, not to my ears in the mixers I've used. A preamp just makes the signal louder. It distorts if it's over driven, or I suppose if something's wrong with it, but not if it's being used properly and it works correctly. If I plug an ES equipted Taylor into one of the mic inputs on my mixer using a TRS to XLR cable and I find a good gain setting at say 30 dBs, which is the 12:00 setting for the mic gains on my Soundcraft MFXi12, I don't see how I'm going to get distortion if I use a regular instrument cable into a DI box and then go into the same input. All I'll have to do is add 6 dB to the gain setting, which is more or less a move from around 12:00 to around 1:00. Most mixers, unless they're really crappy, should be able to handle something like that just fine without distortion, no? Because the gain is being applied after the cable instead of in the guitar, there will probably be a little more noise being made louder along with the signal, but that should be it.

I mentioned pedals because the use of them with a Taylor came up in the discussion.

Louis

I think this is the difference: I'm not talking about using a DI box. Just 1/4" TS cable directly into the powered mixer. Hey, you don't have to believe me. The sound WAS better with the balanced cable in this situation.

[lschwart]

Originally Posted by MikeBmusic

I think this is the difference: I'm not talking about using a DI box. Just 1/4" TS cable directly into the powered mixer. Hey, you don't have to believe me. The sound WAS better with the balanced cable in this situation.

Could have been the cable, I suppose, and I would guess that going into the 1/4" line input on the mixer would mean needing a higher gain level--maybe too high (that input is probably expecting a line-level signal) and as a result probably more noise, but again the only difference in the signal itself should have been the level.

Level does have an effect on how we hear, so that could explain what you're hearing (in combination with the extra noise and whatever effect the TS cable you used had on the tone). But get the gain staging right, use a good cable, and set the final level where it needs to be for the gig and it should sound otherwise the same as as the TRS-XLR method. And for long cable runs, it's best to use the TRS-XLR or a DI box anyway.

Louis