AX8 - Using the XLR vs. the 1/4" Outputs

D

DavidE

Power User
After being sick for months, I learned Friday morning that an MRI Thursday showed the cause of my illness and I found out I will have surgery asap and recovery will be around 4-6 weeks. After I'm home and healed enough to play a little guitar, I'm going to finally get some time to work with my AX8 and more with my Helix. My wife helped me set up the rig in the photo below.

Since only 2 inputs have XLRs and I'll want to do some side by side comparisons (for myself only), what difference, if any, would I hear if I use the AX8 1/4" outputs instead of the XLRs?

Thanks

 
Balanced XLR can help reject noise over long runs. I doubt you will hear any difference over such a short distance as long as you get you levels right.
 
you'd actually want to use 1/4" inputs for both if monitoring in stereo, as I'd guess a mixer that small doesn't have Pan controls for the XLR channels. you'd instead use the Stereo channels - already hard panned when 2 inputs are used - with 1/4".

as for XLR vs 1/4" on the AX8, i believe they both carry the exact same signal and level.
 
DavidE said:
After being sick for months, I learned Friday morning that an MRI Thursday showed the cause of my illness and I found out I will have surgery asap and recovery will be around 4-6 weeks. After I'm home and healed enough to play a little guitar, I'm going to finally get some time to work with my AX8 and more with my Helix. My wife helped me set up the rig in the photo below.

Since only 2 inputs have XLRs and I'll want to do some side by side comparisons (for myself only), what difference, if any, would I hear if I use the AX8 1/4" outputs instead of the XLRs?

Thanks

Click to expand...

Also, I look forward to hearing what conclusions you come to regarding the strengths/weaknesses of the two units :)
-
Austin
 
Chris@AxeFxTutorials said:
you'd actually want to use 1/4" inputs for both if monitoring in stereo, as I'd guess a mixer that small doesn't have Pan controls for the XLR channels. you'd instead use the Stereo channels - already hard panned when 2 inputs are used - with 1/4".

as for XLR vs 1/4" on the AX8, i believe they both carry the exact same signal and level.
Click to expand...

No pan controls, but the XLR inputs are hard left and hard right if you push the stereo switch. I plugged in the 1/4" cables (short George Ls) and they sound great. I like that the signal isn't going through any eq in the mixer. Maybe I'll have to try the headphone out on the mixer too....
 
DavidE said:
After being sick for months, I learned Friday morning that an MRI Thursday showed the cause of my illness and I found out I will have surgery asap and recovery will be around 4-6 weeks. After I'm home and healed enough to play a little guitar, I'm going to finally get some time to work with my AX8 and more with my Helix. My wife helped me set up the rig in the photo below.
Click to expand...

All the best for you no matter if XLR or 1/4" or what not. Health is more important than AX8s or Helices. But maybe they will help you have the good juices flowing.
 
Speedy recovery to you! Those are always nice. :)

I see that some of your guitar cases seem to be sitting on some kind of stand. Can you tell us what you're using?
 
DavidE said:
I have a few of these around the house. They keep my walls in better shape: http://www.musiciansfriend.com/accessories/string-swing-guitar-case-rack?rNtt=guitar case stand&index=14
Click to expand...
That's the kind of thing I'm looking for. I keep most of my guitars cased away, with three or four hanging free on the wall at any given time.

What's your opinion on how strong/stable the are, and how well they hold guitar cases of varying sizes and shapes of hard and soft cases? I have a vision of a stack of cases slumping one way or the other.
 
Having the guitars in a case and in a rack helps not that just stacking them is fine, too. I have two Pro-Line folding guitar stands in my studio, my take here in California is that if things rattle they should stay in the rack and if they rattle too much, most likely the roof will drop down.

Speedy recovery!
 
Rex said:
That's the kind of thing I'm looking for. I keep most of my guitars cased away, with three or four hanging free on the wall at any given time.

What's your opinion on how strong/stable the are, and how well they hold guitar cases of varying sizes and shapes of hard and soft cases? I have a vision of a stack of cases slumping one way or the other.
Click to expand...

Im pretty happy with them. I mix acoustic and electric cases with no problem. The one in my living room holds my most frequently gigged guitars in varous gig bags with no problem.
 
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Am I the only one on this forum that doesn't own 50+ guitars....sheesh...I feel inadequate. :) ..and some of you not only have several guitars but several nice ones...oh the humanity...

@DavidE best wishes on the health!
 
David speedy recovery to you. I just went through bilateral hernia operation and have only been unable to play for a week and it sucks. Will be thinking of you. I built a case stand with 2x4s but those look nice and clean. Take care.
 
It depends on what features the 1/4 inch supports, but at best it would tie the XLR. Most likely, the XLR is the better option. XLR cables are balanced, which greatly reduces the amount of noise they pick up. 1/4 inch cables can support a TRS mode that uses a balanced signal, but often (most of the time) for guitar cables, they do not.

It is possible in some cases that one type of input on the interface may be particularly better than the other, but most probably XLR is the better option. Another relatively minor side concern, as pointed out by ObscureRobot, is that if phantom power is applied to a 1/4 inch TRS cable, it could result in sending power to the wrong pins. You want to make sure that you turn off phantom power, but as a good precaution, plugging in to the source (your guitar) first before plugging in to the board/interface should prevent a problem even if phantom power was still on.
 
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