1/4” or XLR to powered speakers?

D

DLW

Inspired
Axe 3

I already have some cheap Harbinger powered speakers. I know...the only thing worse than a Behringer is a Harbinger. Lol

I already had them. They have a 15” and a tweeter. They make sound. I do not expect them to sound crystal clear and accurate. Will have to wait to upgrade. I was going to wire them up to the Axe at some point. Just want to compare cheap powered speakers to running in the return of 100w tube heads into cabs of greenbacks or 65’s. I will just be using for presets. Not fine tuning anything yet. Just making sound with stock settings for now. I have a set of Blue Mix Fi headphones which is what I have been playing thru so far as I have tube heads, cabs and pedals all over the place and starting the analog purge and have not even hooked up to anything other than headphones yet.

I have 1/4” cables. My question.....

For running into powered speakers is it best to use XLR cables or does it really not make a difference compared to regular 1/4” cables? Thank you!
 
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It will not make any difference.
Some gear interpretes XLR as a mic signal and 1/4" as a line signal. If so, the XLR will be too hot.
 
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XLR can be handy over TS 1/4," a little bit of noise rejection (particularly for longer runs) and a slight bump up in level even if you are running the XLR into live level. I'd recommend it if the Harbinger can do XLR line level and you have the cables.
 
rossipedia said:
Does that also hold for TRS balanced 1/4" ?
Click to expand...

For interference immunity, XLR probably better (but can depend on how you are grounding screens for both). For connector durability and security, XLR definitely better than 1/4" TRS.

Liam
 
I had a strange experience with cables.
I just bought a Mission Gemini 2 powered stereo cab. When i connected the Fx3 with jack cable, it sounded nasal and just plain wrong. But when i switched to XLR, the sound was great.
I have never experienced something like that before, and i have no clue why the sound is altered with the jack cable.
 
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popmusiker said:
I had a strange experience with cables.
I just bought a Mission Gemini 2 powered stereo cab. When i connected the Fx3 with jack cable, it sounded nasal and just plain wrong. But when i switched to XLR, the sound was great.
I have never experienced something like that before, and i have no clue why the sound is altered with the jack cable.
Click to expand...
It's always a juggling act between cable quality, cable length, connector type, wiring scheme and/or assembly. There's no one "right" answer, but in general (and given the choice) anything over about 20' will benefit from "2cond. + shield" wire and XLR connectors. Unless there are grounding issues. Or the cable is cheap. Or the 3pin XLR's are miswired. Or... like I said, a juggling act.

Me? Lazy Man calls Best-Tronics and tells them what I'm hooking up and how far apart they are. Expensive but correct EVERY time.
 
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touch33 said:
It's always a juggling act between cable quality, cable length, connector type, wiring scheme and/or assembly. There's no one "right" answer, but in general (and given the choice) anything over about 20' will benefit from "2cond. + shield" wire and XLR connectors. Unless there are grounding issues. Or the cable is cheap. Or the 3pin XLR's are miswired. Or... like I said, a juggling act.

Me? Lazy Man calls Best-Tronics and tells them what I'm hooking up and how far apart they are. Expensive but correct EVERY time.
Click to expand...
Yes you're right, but in my case it was one meter splitcable, as the Gemini only have one input - two mono out from Fx3 to TRS input on speaker. I dont quite understand it, as the Gemini manual says, that both XLR and stereo jack will work in the input.
 
popmusiker said:
Yes you're right, but in my case it was one meter splitcable, as the Gemini only have one input - two mono out from Fx3 to TRS input on speaker. I dont quite understand it, as the Gemini manual says, that both XLR and stereo jack will work in the input.
Click to expand...

Could it have been a summing stereo to mono issue causing phase cancellation?
 
popmusiker said:
Maybe, i have no idea. I just find it strange that the Gemini manual says you can use both split jack and split XLR, when the jack types obviously dont work properly.
Click to expand...
My understanding is that the XLR works only for mono.

I'd suggest you contact Mission Engineering. They are nice guys.
 
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