XLR to 1/4 Adapter question

[Craig McCoy]

Does it matter which side is the input and which side is the output on an adapter such as:

http://www.radioshack.com/product.asp?catalog%5Fname=CTLG&product%5Fid=274-016

I would like to tie the output from a sound board that has a 1/4" mono plug to the input of my Sony PDX10 XLR plug. Would this adapter work?

Thanks,

[Douglas Spotted Eagle]

As long as it's a short run (15' or less) then this will work fine. Longer than that...it's a problem. You SURE the board output isn't balanced via tip/ring/sleeve? Many are. I'd get a TRS male to XLR [edit] male. This way, you've got a better cable choice, and if the board isn't balanced, you've still got a working cable. And if it IS balanced, then you've got a great solution.

[Jay Massengill]

You'd need to get a TRS male to XLR male cable to go from a balanced 1/4" output into the PDX10's female XLR.
I would avoid this Radio Shack transformer for this purpose because it changes the impedence unnecessarily and is the wrong gender XLR.
What specific mixer and output connector are you using?

[Douglas Spotted Eagle]

Yeah, duh...I meant male. Thanks for the catch. As though there were a camera out there with male connectors anyway.(for input)
Sometimes I type faster than I think.

[Craig McCoy]

Thanks guys for the information. I don't know the specifics of the mixer, but the output is a female 1/4" TS unbalance +4dBu Line (at least according to the markings on the back of the mixer). I was hoping it would have a balanced output, but as best as I can tell, it doesn't.

So based on what has be said, my initial understand that the transformer adapter would balance the unbalanced line coming out of the mixer is not correct. Right? What would then be my options if I needed a run longer than 15'?

Thanks for the help.

[Douglas Spotted Eagle]

+4 and you're SURE it's not balanced? How is it that you're reading it off the mixer but you can't see what brand/model # the mixer is?
Your options are to use a DI box, but I'd be spending more time finding out for certain if the output is balanced or unbalanced. Or find out what the mixer make/model is, maybe someone here will know if it's balanced.
You could also use an inline transformer, but again, you may not need it.

[Craig McCoy]

Well, the mixer is at my son's school which I looked at during my lunch break today. I only wrote down the information about the outputs, not the model number. In hindsight, I should have. Anyhow, I'm sure about the +4dBu LINE as it expressly stated that. However, the TS is based on a simple schematic printed on the back of the mixer. It showed all the outputs as TS (all the inputs are XLR). And one of the of the outputs had a TS male plugged into it. Of course, my assumption could be wrong.

The unfortunate part is I won't be able to get another look at the mixer before I'd need to use it.

Thanks again for all the help.

[Douglas Spotted Eagle]

Well...if you saw TS on there, that would be Tip/Sleeve, which is unbalanced. you'd want to convert unbalanced to balanced. So, a DI coming out of the mixer, or using a balancing adapter coming out of the mixer, then to an XLR female, running the length, ending with an XLR male, you'd be set. If your distance is short, you won't need balanced audio.
Hopefully you'll have a lot of time for a soundcheck?

[Craig McCoy]

It didn't actually say "TS". It was just that the schematic showed a Tip/Sleve style symbol for the output jacks (at least my interpretation of the symbol). So, I'm still not sure they are unbalanced. But if they are unbalanced, will the Radio Shack adapter mentioned in my original post work as a balancing adapter?

Thanks again.

[David Ennis]

Should be a balancing adaptor since there's a transformer in it. You can check it as follows: Either XLR pin 2 or 3 should connect to the 1/4" plug's tip and the other to the plug's sleeve. Pin 1 should *not* connect to either section of the 1/4" plug.

[Craig McCoy]

Thanks everyone for all the help on this. I did end up getting the Radio Shack adapter and it seemed to work for the most part (it was a tad noisy). The unfortunate part was that the event itself turned out not to be worth video taping.