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I have Hr824s and Avantone cubes - both active monitors - and they have XLR female plugs on them for audio input. My audio out from my Big Knob is 1/4" 3 conductor phone connector.
I recall buying cables from somewhere "not a musician store" a long time ago for my HRs and they sound great - totally silent with no signal.
I picked up a couple cables from the Guitar Center for my Avantones - 1/4" to XLR and they are buzzy/hummy. I look at the tiny print on the wires and they say "Microphone". So this is wrong?
I've tried searching "speaker cable" at sweetwater and zzounds and they never come up with anything with XLRs on the end. So where do people buy wires for their spiffy active monitors?
DP 11.newest on MacBook Air M2 24/2T
Korg Kronos Klassic Keyboard 88, Line 6 Helix
Thousands of $'s worth of vintage gear currently valued in the dozens of dollars.
I was previously using pro co mic cables xlr to xlr to my BM6A's. Recently ordered Mogami 2549 cable w/ xlr/xlr from Redco. The 2549's ar 2 conductor " standard mic" cables. No problems and I sensed a better HF response. Maybe the cables capacitance rating vs pro co ? I dunno.
I also got Mogami quad mic 2534 cables for mics.
The price difference is about 30%. Why pay more?
It beats the price of Monster cables for sure, and they are semi custom length.
Tonio wrote:I was previously using pro co mic cables xlr to xlr to my BM6A's. Recently ordered Mogami 2549 cable w/ xlr/xlr from Redco. The 2549's ar 2 conductor " standard mic" cables. No problems and I sensed a better HF response. Maybe the cables capacitance rating vs pro co ?
Actually, the noisy ones are mogami microphone cables. I know its the cables, if I pull them the speakers go silent.
DP 11.newest on MacBook Air M2 24/2T
Korg Kronos Klassic Keyboard 88, Line 6 Helix
Thousands of $'s worth of vintage gear currently valued in the dozens of dollars.
Speaker cables are designed to carry the powered signal from an amp to the speaker, a balanced cable takes a line-level signal only. XLR is often referred to as a microphone cable, but it's not. I use "mic cables" to go into my outboard gear, my studio monitors, and right out of my mics. If you are getting noise and hum, then either the cables are bad----or the speakers are bad.
Thank you,
Brad Lyons
db AUDIO & VIDEO
-Systems Advisor, CTS
BradLyons wrote:Speaker cables are designed to carry the powered signal from an amp to the speaker, a balanced cable takes a line-level signal only. XLR is often referred to as a microphone cable, but it's not. I use "mic cables" to go into my outboard gear, my studio monitors, and right out of my mics. If you are getting noise and hum, then either the cables are bad----or the speakers are bad.
So from the bigknob to the active avantones should be a "mic" cable?
The speakers are silent with no cables...
I'll have to pull the cables from the mackies and see if they hum in the avantones
DP 11.newest on MacBook Air M2 24/2T
Korg Kronos Klassic Keyboard 88, Line 6 Helix
Thousands of $'s worth of vintage gear currently valued in the dozens of dollars.
The Big Knob should be TRS MALE to XLR MALE into the monitors..... so somewhere along the lines, you have either a bad output on the Big Knob, bad speakers, bad cables, etc.
Thank you,
Brad Lyons
db AUDIO & VIDEO
-Systems Advisor, CTS
Classic Ground Loop symptom. First, try powering all audio devices from a power strip fed from a single AC Wall Outlet. If that doesn't work, try lifting the ground on one of your connecting cables. To accomplish this, cut the shield and leave the center conductor intact on a standard unbalanced audio cable. Or you can use a direct box with ground lift. Also, USB connections can sometimes cause ground loop issues. Cutting the shield and ground wire in the USB cable can fix trouble there. Check out Rane's guide to audio connections for lots of detail. Good luck!
BradLyons wrote:If you are getting noise and hum, then either the cables are bad----or the speakers are bad.
It's also possible that the cables are wired incorrectly. Or it's possible that the cables are fine, but your Big Knob's output is the problem. Are you using the same out's for the 824s? Did you try these cables on the 824s?
DP 11.34. 2020 M1 Mac Mini [9,1] (16 Gig RAM), Mac Pro 3GHz 8 core [6,1] (16 Gig RAM), OS 15.3/11.6.2, Lynx Aurora (n) 8tb, MOTU 8pre-es, MOTU M6, MOTU 828, Apogee Rosetta 800, UAD-2 Satellite, a truckload of outboard gear and plug-ins, and a partridge in a pear tree.
BradLyons wrote:Speaker cables are designed to carry the powered signal from an amp to the speaker, a balanced cable takes a line-level signal only. XLR is often referred to as a microphone cable, but it's not. I use "mic cables" to go into my outboard gear, my studio monitors, and right out of my mics. If you are getting noise and hum, then either the cables are bad----or the speakers are bad.
On an XLR cable(I call this a mic cable and am interested why it isn't), there are three pins. 1 = ground. 2 & 3 are the balanced line. If somewhere in your set-up, 2 & 3 have become swapped, this can cause weird things. If the ground shield in the cable has become damaged, this can cause noise. You might pick up a radio station if this is the case. The mic cable is designed to carry line level only, this is true, but it also has the shield to guard against stray noise. A speaker cable has no shield having two conducter lines. A guitar cable has a single signal conducter and a shield. If you're hooking up your system and are not sure, you might unscrew a connector and look for a shield or its absence.
