wireless audio...balanced and unbalanced?

[Red96TA]

I just got a Gemini UHF wireless mic setup. The back of the receiver has two XLR male plugs and under them it says 'balanced'. Next to the XLR plugs is a 1/4" female plug for an out to my camcorder...it says 'unbalanced' under it.

What's the difference in balanced and unbalanced? If I use the 1/4" plug, will I just have to double-check the mic volumes to manually balance them, or am I WAY off base? If I need to use the XLR plugs to get both mic audios mixed into my camcorder, how the heck do I do that?

WAY over my head...TIA.

[Richard_G]

Way off the mark. Balanced and unbalanced refers to how the connections are made with respect to ground. XLR connections use a balanced feed, that is the mic audio is carried on a pair of wires (one to each side of the mic) with an outer screen which is connected to ground. Both sides of the mic are at the same potential with regard to ground, hence 'balanced'. A 1/4" jack only has 2 connections, tip and sleeve. Both of these are connected to the two sides of the mic but the sleeve (screen) is also connected to ground. Hence unbalanced as the potential to ground is different, one side being grounded the other not.

Balanced mics tend to be used more in pro and studio setups and are less prone to interference and crosstalk from other circuits. In most cases you won't notice any difference between the two as most consumer type equipment has unbalanced mic inputs (i.e. one side of it is grounded) making it a bit pointless to use a balanced source.

[BJ_M]

didnt you post this on the vegas forum ?

balanced vs. unbalanced doesnt mean the volume is balanced -- but in a balanced audio line there is a + signal and a - signal twisted together ...

when noise gets into the signal - it gets into both together the same amount and therefore is canceled out --

why you can run balanced lines very long distances (1000's of feet)


unbalanced is just a signal line and a ground ..


there is a 6dB diff in levels between them .. BUT in many cheap audio equipment the balanced line is not true balanced , its quasi balanced (no differential amp on the Input)