3.5mm to balanced/unbalanced XLR or TRS ?

[lovinthehd]

Also, I was replying to the OP's post, so I wasn't reading all of the other responses.

I just entered 'Rane Why Not Wye?' in the AH search bar and it showed up at the bottom.

I gave up in general on the AH search function long ago....easier to just use a search engine and point it at the site.

 

[Regev]

1) No, a Y cord connects the left and right positive signals and in some cases, that can damage the source device- it's not made to connect the channels without some kind of added resistance.

This link has everything you could possibly need to know about this- look for an article titled 'Why Not Wye?', specifically.

I started reading this article, but I don't see how it is relevant? I never planned to use a Y cord. I thought Unbalanced XLR cables automatically combine to Mono? Because every unbalanced 3.5 to XLR cable says this: " Ideal cable for interconnecting most devices with 3.5mm mini jack to a mixing console or powered speakers with XLR input. Combine the 2 stereo channels from a phone, voice recorder or other device into a mono signal."

Also, on Android, under Accessibility --> Audio Adjustment, there's the option to Combine 2 channels to Mono.

 

[highfigh]

I started reading this article, but I don't see how it is relevant? I never planned to use a Y cord. I thought Unbalanced XLR cables automatically combine to Mono? Because every unbalanced 3.5 to XLR cable says this: " Ideal cable for interconnecting most devices with 3.5mm mini jack to a mixing console or powered speakers with XLR input. Combine the 2 stereo channels from a phone, voice recorder or other device into a mono signal."

Also, on Android, under Accessibility --> Audio Adjustment, there's the option to Combine 2 channels to Mono.

If you don't plan to use a Y-cord or a summing device, how will you get the signal from both channels into a mono speaker? The reason I mentioned the article is so you WOULDN'T use a Y cord and possibly damage the phone.

You might have posted the info about the ability to sum the phone to mono up front- not everyone uses an Android. However, using the analog audio out from most phones is about the worst way to get sound into another system- using a newer version of BT usually sounds better and streaming at CD bit rate is even better than that.

 

[TLS Guy]

I also found this unbalanced 1.5m XLR to 3.5mm cable for a decent price:

6.68US $ 23% OFF|Dremake Aux 3.5mm Male To Xlr 3-pin Male Stereo Audio Cable Xlr To 1/8'' Mini Jack Stereo Unbalanced Converter Cord For Speaker - Audio & Video Cables - AliExpress

Smarter Shopping, Better Living! Aliexpress.com

www.aliexpress.com

Look what it says:

"This is the Unbalanced cable, which combines the left and right stereo to the mono input, the L/R channels that soldered together, making the mono signal to XLR Pin 2, the XLR Pin 1 and Pin 3 which shorted to ground, not the balanced cable"

and for the same price and length theres this 3.5 to TSL cable:

0.01US $ 99% OFF|Vention 6.5 To 3.5 Jack Aux Cable Adapter For Speaker Guitar Amplifier Trs Audio Cable Jack 3.5mm To 6.5mm Audio Cable Auxiliar - Audio & Video Cables - AliExpress

Smarter Shopping, Better Living! Aliexpress.com

www.aliexpress.com

I don't think you can connect your Google device to those speakers directly.

The first issue is the DC offset of headphone portable devices. They have a few mv of DC offset, which drops when a headphone is connected, which is low impedance. So this drops the DC offset and is used by the device to detect that headphones are connected.

Now I don't know what the signal output of your Google device is, but it is likely the Android standard, which is 150 mv. That will not be nearly enough to drive your speakers, which will require a line voltage of 2.3 volts, if it follows conventional practice. There is no proper spec. for those speakers, which look optimistic to say the least. I don't care how many 2" speakers it has, but it will be pretty much useless as a PA device. It has eight 2" speakers crossed at 260 Hz, where there is still lots of power and a requirement for more cone excursion than 2" drivers will have. So for a start you have fallen victim to a pretty significant con.

So I do not know what will happen to your device if you common the output. It could be bad, and it also could be risky to send DC offset to a high impedance input, as DC could be present at the output then. Many amps will amplify DC these days.

As far as going from unbalanced from your Pixel device, that is the easy part, as you would need a 3.5 mm to a mono phone jack, and when you connect that to a TRS female connected it gives you an unbalanced signal. However that will connect the outputs of your pixel together and that could be risky, de to the DC offset issue.

I think if you must pursue this, then you need a mixer to interpose between your pixel device and you speaker.

 

[Regev]

Not sure I understand.
For the past 6 months, I used that speaker (it is a powered speaker, connected to the wall), and used a 3.5mm to XLR cable to connect my phone to it. It sounded great. Have I risked the equipment in any way ?

 

[TLS Guy]

Not sure I understand.
For the past 6 months, I used that speaker (it is a powered speaker, connected to the wall), and used a 3.5mm to XLR cable to connect my phone to it. It sounded great. Have I risked the equipment in any way ?

I highly doubt it. But I don't know what the connections were in that cable. I'm assuming it was a mono 3.5 mm connector and not a stereo one. Was the phone Apple or Android?

 

[Regev]

I highly doubt it. But I don't know what the connections were in that cable. I'm assuming it was a mono 3.5 mm connector and not a stereo one. Was the phone Apple or Android?

It's the same Pixel 4a.
The cable was this :

https://amzn.to/3Gukhqx

I also used this cable : https://www.searchpos.co.uk/cablestop/3.5mm_to_xlr/3.5mm_stereo_xlr_male.jpg
from time to time, but recently it started sounding 'hummed' and weird, as if the music comes from within a glass jar full of water, so I threw it to the trash can and just kept using the other cable. Only reason I want another one is because it is way too long for the distance I'm placing the phone next to the Evox.

 

[Regev]

I emailed RCF regarding what I learned here.

As for the 0.3v, coming out of the phone's 3.5mm, they said it won't be enough to drive the full sound to the Evox. -"You need a small mixer to increase the voltage output."

As for the DC offset, they said : "No problem of DC offset. Our input boards are protected from DC."