Extension Cable [Archive]

John Unger

October 19th, 2005, 07:45 PM

Steve House

October 20th, 2005, 06:48 AM

I am using the Rode Videomic mounted on a homemade boom pole for a production I am shooting next week. I have everything in place except for an extension cable.

I will be shooting on a GL2. I am a newbie, and have yet to win the lottery, so budget is tight. I see Rode offers a 10' extension cable. Should I order it or can I find something similar at Radio Shack?

I know the cable sheilding is important so I am asking you guys, the people I trust. Is it worth it for the XLR adapter if I am using the Rode for now?

Using an XLR cable and XLR adapters at each end won't make any difference. An XLR is simply a type of connector that is often used at one or both ends of a cable in a balanced line. The advantages to such a cable stem from the fact that it is used in an electrically balanced circuit, not from the fact it uses XLR connectors per se. In fact, XLR doesn't guarantee the circuit is balanced and there are other connectors (TRS, Lemo, etc) that can be used in circuits that ARE balanced. Your camera's input is an unbalanced input and the Rode mic is an unbalanced output. Even if you were to use a balanced cable with XLR connectors and adapters, the fact that it is unbalanced at both ends (actually this is true if it's unbalanced at either end) means that the whole system is unabalanced and any advantages you might otherwise have are cancelled out. So save your money and get a simple 1/8 inch stereo extension cable from Radio Snak such as you might use for a headphone extension. RS usually has a couple of different quality levels and go for the top one if there's a choice, it'll probably have better shielding.

Ty Ford

October 20th, 2005, 05:52 PM