Understanding Audio Cables & Connectors
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- Опубліковано 30 чер 2024
- Any musician or person working in sound must understand the various types of audio connectors and cables. The main ones are 1/4 inch, XLR, RCA, Speakon and even MIDI. They can be use to connect guitars, keyboards, microphones, speakers and more. Though it may seem daunting if you are new to sound or are a new musician, it is rather easy to understand audio instrument and speaker cables and connectors.
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Thank you for taking time to make this video. Been in audio for 40+years, & as you know, we must stay informed. Thanks for updating my knowledge.
Thanks for sharing a really comprehensive explanation that's important for musicians to understand, especially for some things that can confuse people like the difference between DMX & XLR or 1/4" instrument & speaker. This is a great starting point for people to learn more and expand their knowledge of the equipment we all gotta use.
Quick note on the interconnect vs microphone: interconnects lack the necessary shielding to be used for microphones because they're designed to interconnect devices. Say, your interface to your monitors, which aren't as susceptible to interference. You could use a mic cable as an interconnect, but you'd pick up way too much noise using an interconnect as a mic cable.
Appreciate your work & wisdom as always, Kennis!
Nice and clearly explained and demonstrated Kennis,even us old hands that have seen the changes over the years need to know the subtle differences of the similar looking cables with same ends on but very different cores for their purposes. Well done and worthwhile!
2020, this is the best simply put yet highly informative video ever, you just earned a sub, thank you Ken, beautiful stuff
i love how you differentiated the different uses of what seems to be 100% identical types of cables, im in the media ministry in my church and I found this highly useful
I just want to say thank you for all that information on cables. I am buying some equipment for my studio and I had no clue what to buy or what any of this known cables did or where used for other than the basics. This video has taken me out the dark much appreciated.
I learned something new. With xlr cable I wasn't aware of the difference for digital vs mic/audio. I was experiencing alot of hum and interference with some cheap cables and stepped up the quality and solved the problem. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you Kennis. I've been searching video to help me out, but not much on UA-cam. Finally! Very greatful!
Thanks for the video. It's funny...I've been a musician all my life and never heard of speakon cables. I never used a PA. I always used instrument amplifiers. I recently bought a PA amp and speakers and didn't know that I would need speakon cables. I found out that's what I needed, but had never heard of them. So I watched your video and you answered all the questions and more. Not so complicated now. You make it simple....thanks
The 9 year old in me laughed at 1:50
Vinni Lopes lmao, it’s always so funny to watch the “cable Guys” squirm as they explain male and female connecters
. 😂
Thanks for taking the time to explain it; I really appreciate it! :)
Great Video! You made it easy enough for your old PCH choir buddy to understand! Thanks for the info! -W
This video is absolutely amazing i needed to know about cables and connectors for my college event and this was such a great help Thank you so much!!!
Good elementary tutorial on cables. I particularly enjoyed his visual demonstration of the difference between female connector and male connector. I watched that part several times.
😳umm what? You “enjoyed his visual demonstration?” 👀😳
Thanks man. Just starting a new job and I need to know these. Lots of good info and easy to understand.
Full of knowledge about connectors, thank you very much
Thanks for the help! It’s easy to forget the basics!
I learned a lot, thank you! Just got a audio interface and I needed this video!
@@kennisrussell :D
Great information! I am not a musician, but an electronics repair technician. I need to know about every cable out there, both past and present, in order to do repair work.
Frank
Frank Reiser Video/Audio Service
Great explanation there, was also looking to see a PL cable but thanks for the upload !
Fantastic video. Thanks for sharing your knowledge.
Thank you so much. But I would have loved the diagram of connections as why they are different.👍
Great explanation about the cables. I learned good lesson about the various types of cables! 👍
Great Job! I am going to use you explanation to teach my guitar club students. Thank you!
Great video Kennis! Very informative.
This has helped a lot. Thankyou.
Great video, I was really confused whether there were two types of XLR cable, one for mics and DIs which are inserted into a mixing console, and one for the the output which goes into amps and speaker cabs but if I understood correctly this is not the case.
Great explanation with accurate info 👌
Great video, always good to know what your grabbing and why or why not. Thanks!
Awesome video! I learned a lot. Thanks!
Speakon also carries 2 signals. This means that on a lot of modern amps you can set settings for 2 different speakers (woofer and tweeter for example).
corrda1993 no this means you can run a biamp speaker, if you use nl4 spliter’s you can do that but it’s u comon. Most people only use 2 of the 4 legs in the speakon, infact when you buy it sometimes it’s only 2 wires not 4 you would need 4 wires two run a speaker in bi-amp larger scale pro audio systems use a speakon nl8 cable with 8 wires/conductors in it. Depending how the rig is wired and the amps are wired this sometimes caries both signals. Most of these sized systems become 4-5 way systems so sub, low, mid, hi. Sometimes a mid high. The same cable may be used but each one will be running a different signal
Hi. Do you think that speakon splitters work to connect to passive speakers to an active one?
it depends on whether it is NL2, NL4 or NL8. NL2 has two contacts so you can only use a cable with to conductors which transmit one speaker signal. If you have an NL4 plug that is also hooked up to a 4-conductor cable, you can transport 2 speaker signals and NL8, which is physically much bigger can transport 4 speaker signals. So when you have two speakers that should receive a different signal, you take an NL4 cable to the first one and then you need to use a crossover cable (or splitter) for the other speaker. The reason being is that Speaker 1 is only going to use the signal on pins 1+ and 1-, and speaker 2 is also going to only use the signal from those pins, but because the signal for speaker 2 has so far been transported on pins 2+ and 2-, you need a cable that takes what is on pins 2+ and 2- and puts it onto pins 1+ and 1-, which is a crossover cable. I don't think these are commercially available, and another option is to hook up a splitter to the free speakon jack on speaker 1 and connect your normal speakon cable to that.
@techtutorialsbyhenry : nope, this will not work. Speakon cables are only designed for transporting a speaker level signal between an amp and a passive speaker. An active speaker wants a line level signal to amplify in its integrated amp and has an XLR input for this purpose. Converting speakon to XLR and putting a speaker-level signal into the electronics would likely fry the active speaker's amp. The only case where you can hook a passive speaker up to an active one is if the active speaker's integrated amp is designed to drive another speaker, in which case the active speaker would already have a speakon out and no splitter would be needed. However, I am aware of no such speaker because it would not make sense to build it.
Dude i learned so much from this video. Thanks!
thanks for your time to show your knowledge
Brilliant. Really helpful video.
Thank you. Answered all of my questions in plain English
Great info and well presented.
I'm a videographer and I've been struggling to understand the mechanics of sound and audio. I need a basic understanding as I will soon be plugging into sound systems for high quality recording at live events. This video has been incredibly helpful. Thank you so much!
Very helpful, thank you!
Speaker cables can transfer guitar signal just as good as instrument cables. The reason you don't want to use them is that speaker cables are not shielded and will thus bring a lot of noise into the front end of your amplifiers which will make the interference louder. You dont have this problem going from your amo to your speaker cause ibterference is usually not very loud, especially compared to the signal thats going through it at that moment
1/4" plugs and jacks are the most widely used audio connectors, carrying signals with different impedance and voltage which makes them incompatible and could even make some smoke if mistakenly mixed. The two major troublemakers are guitar amp sets and portable PA's, in which 1/4" cables are used to carry high-voltage, high-current powered signals that'll certainly cause a costly and gruesome fireworks show while being wired into any line or instrument level inputs. Or if only one end of a 1/4" cable is plugged into an amplifier, the other end will act as both a stungun and a firestarter.
Thanks for sharing this useful infos!
Thank You Sir. Really helpful!
awesome explanation, thank you!
Thank you so much my brother your video helped me a lots
Thank you sos much....... I was using a guitar cable to hook up my speakers and I did not know that.
Thank you! I was using a guitar cable to hook up my speakers for dj and I did not know that 1/4inches are not the same simply cause the ends match...
Good job great video!
thanks! that was so helpful
Good demo on cables & connectors sir
Kennis Russell thank for post this video it has give me some insight on auto cable,
Very helpful!
I think you may have meant red and _white_ RCA connectors for audio. Yellow is for composite video.
Great video!! Speakon is a brand too. It's NL4 & NL8
👍 Comprehensive video.
In Ireland and the UK we call the quarter inch or guitar cable a "Jack to Jack" or "Jack lead"
Some of the RCA connector are used for Composite Video - Red Blue and Green; while the typical Yellow - Video, Red and White for Left and Right Audio. Midi are DIN Connectors like on the old Commodore computers.
Great informatiom.wonderful advice.not going against what you said but i use a dmx cable for audio and microphone and it works great
Hey Ken loved your Tommy movie!
good explanation, thanks---
Awesome video! So informational and helpful. I did have a question since I’m just getting into audio. I purchased some studio monitors and I heard there’s a difference between them and regular speakers. Such as studio monitors require a balanced cable because they’re used for listening to specific sounds and frequencies while producing. Will I loose quality if I get an unbalanced cable?
Great video
Still a lot to absorb, (yeah I'm slow) but I plan on watching this several times LoL. Thank you very helpful. 🏹🤠👍
I'm a musician play various clubs in my lifetime someone told me you could take a microphone cable cut the ends off. install/ solder quarter inch Jack's and on one side leave one of them off and clip it tape it and it'll keep the hum out is this true? old musician hacks?
And for other musicians have you ever heard of a hot tap? that's where you take what looks like jumper cable type cables that has outlets on the other end hook them to the club's main Buzz bars on the breaker box so you can get clean power so that neon signs in fluorescent lights won't make noise on your band's equipment/ PA !
with modern-day equipment not so necessary but in the old days we had to do what we had to do , haha...
Great video just wished you got more into the TRS balanced tip ring sleeve versus unbalanced TS tip and sleeve.. You mentioned it a little bit but those two things need to be shown in comparison maybe even discussing three conductors versus two conductors but like I said great video overall
He looks like Blake shelton
XLR vs DMX is not about ohmage but impedance. XLR carry low frequency signal, this is not an issue. DMX in the other hand uses serial communication at a fixed 250kbps baud rate. You need a special wire conception to avoid problem related to higher frequency. It's also why it's best practice to use a terminator on a DMX bus. It's also why you can use CAT5 or CAT6 cable as DMX cable because they are built to deal with high frequencies.
Nice presentation. You may want to add a correction about the speaker cables NOT working in the instruments. The speaker cable has lower resistance and no shielding. It will deliver the signal to the instrument along with all the other interference that affects small voltage and currents like what is delivered to the instrument. The instrument cable on the other hand (much thinner) has high resistance and may overheat if used with the high currents required in the speaker circuit.
Thank you sir!!!!
I love u bro! Had no idea what a speakon cord was. I order a set of $600 speakers and they came with no cords lmao
I bought a krk rokit 7 g4 pair. U know what cables I need?
Informative.
Thank you very much
Question: I want to buy a headphone amp for my headphones but also I would like to connect my studio monitors and subwoofer. It has a left and right rca line out and also a 3.5mm jack for sub. Can I connect my Powered KRK Sub to the unit via a XLR or TRS into a 3.5mm jack into the unit?
What about the 3ft cable that has 1/4” end connector to speak on end connector. Where is it rightfully use for?
Hello.i have a quick question. Which cables do i need to connect a controller that have an rca output to xlr speakers? Thank you!
Thank you for this, Kennis. It was really very helpful. That said, I have a question. I decided to check my 1 month & 10 day old "speaker" cables (used to connect my home studio Tannoy monitors to my Mackie mixer), and the 6' Pearstone (TRS to XLR/M) cable says "Professional Microphone Cable" on it. I mentioned the age because it's a week and a half past my 30 day return window :( Is this ok? You mentioned instrument cables are not recommended for speaker connections because they'll get hot, may cause damage, etc.... Should I change the cables? Note, due to a recently rigorous schedule, I have not yet plugged up and tested any of my new cables or the new mixer.
@@kennisrussell Thanks, Kennis! You're amazing for replying on Christmas Eve. Have a great one!
Thank you sir
Informative
You rock!!!!
thanks mate
All those Audio Cables are analog, therefore the quality and condition of the cables will impact the audio quality.
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU
I think the XLR midi cables sound the best between my tube/optical compressor and mixing table.
What about you guys?
Incidentally, I've recently used such a cable to hook up a Philips 541 MFB vintage speaker. Sounds fine.
Red and Black for stereo audio RCA, Yellow is usually Video.
The question I can't seem to find an answer for is. About balanced and unbalanced connections. If your instrument Output Balanced and you have an interface with unbalanced input or vice versa. Does it work either way?
It should work, but you'll just end up with an "unbalanced" setup.
i have a guitar processer(Firehawk fx) and it has 2 XLR out and 2 "1/4"out ...do i need these kind of speakon, xlr,1/4 speaker cable to connect my guitar processor with powered speaker?
Sweet....
I'm having an extension built...
I want to have speakon wall sockets... So do I just Daisey chain them...
IE output from amp going into Left channel input in the wall, then from that initial input Daisey chain one speakon socket to the next....
Repeating the process for the right channel....
Thanks for the info. QUESTION: I do karaoke gigs and I have power speakers. I do not use an amp. My speakers are plugged into my pro/fx mixer. Wouldn't I get less (or no) interference using instrument cables instead of speaker cables?
Also can you give your recommendation for the best quality speaker cables? Thanks!
Kennis Russell Thanks for the reply back. Much appreciated.
Hi. I have a PA system with 2 speakers. I’m trying to add another passive speaker (bigger with bigger subwoofer for bass) that has 1/4” and speakon connectors (both). Right now until I figure out how to connect all together I’m using the small active speaker with the big one. I have been checking the speakon splitters and thinking if that would work if I connect it to the small active speaker and then connect the 2 passive speakers to it. Or maybe I would need to get a mixer to connect the big passive speaker to it if it doesn’t work with the splitter. What do you think? What is your advice on this? Thanks for your help and time.
XLR vs USB C, witch one is the premium audio option ? ( Laptop ) my device have both! Thanks "Output XLR Out (Mini 5-pin)"
hi Ken, my active sub has a Speakon cable but one end are 2 bares wires red and black....how do these bare wires connect to my AV amp ?....thx
Speaking about a TRS male 1/4 inch connector that goes into a mic interface, what would be the proper size? (16AWG, 18AWG, 20AWG, 22AWG, 26AWG, etc??) Thanks a lot!!!
I bought an old mic amplifier on Ebay. It has a Bogen label on it but I think it was either put on or it has been altered. The only outputs it has are 2 groups of BNC jacks labeled 25 watts. I have never seen BNC jacks used with audio before. I have been buying old and new amps for 40 years. Any idea what they had in mind?
Standard XLR cables are usually 22-24 gauge and are good for transmitting line level signals to powered speakers. Passive speakers connect to amplifiers, which have peak power. SpeakON cables are designed specifically to transmit speaker level signal from an amplifier to a passive speaker. When you said XLR can be used in speakers did you mean powered speaker? SpeakON cables will be overkill for a powered speaker however. Correct me if I am wrong but comparison between SpeakON and XLR is like apple and orange comparison.
PLEASE EXPLAIN WHAT IS A TIFFANY STYLE RCA CONNECTION, MOST AMPS COME WITH TIFFANY STYLE RCAs BUT NO INFO HOW TO CONNECT THEM TO HEAD UNIT. THANK YOU MR. RUSSELL
Hi how would I connect my ddj1000 controller to an old eq that only has rca and then to my krk rp8 speakers using xlr?
Dear
Xlr to 6.35mm conversation can work for my Sony 71d music system with Samson C03 xlr mic?
I have a question, I purchased a Akai mpc one, it has a 1/8" headphone jack I guess? So what do I need?
Which brands do you think its the best for audio and speakers?
I understand XLR cables are mono. Can I use a 5-pin XLR however as stereo?
Could I then find an TRS-to-5-pin-XLR adapter to make my signal stereo?
Came across a speakon connector on an old power amp and was utterly flumoxed about how to plug it into the 1/4 inputs on the massive speaker setup i need an adapter.