Balanced Do Unbalanced_What's the Difference?
In a word: "noise." The whole point of balanced lines is noise
rejection and it's something they're very good at. Any length of wire will act as an antenna to pick up
the random electromagnetic radiation we're constantly surrounded by: radio and TV signals as well as spurious electromagnetic noise generated by power lines, motors, electric appliances, computer monitors, and a variety of other sources. The longer the wire, the more noise it is likely to pick up. That's why balanced lines are the best choice for long cable runs. If your "studio" is basically confined to your desktop and all connections are no more than a meter or two in length, then unbalanced lines are fine—unless you're surrounded by extremely high levels of electromagnetic noise. Another place balanced lines are almost always used is in microphone cables. The reason for this is that the output signal from most microphones is very small, so even a tiny amount of noise will be relatively large, and will be amplified to an alarming degree in the mixer's high-gain head amplifier
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In a word: "noise." The whole point of balanced lines is noise
rejection and it's something they're very good at. Any length of wire will act as an antenna to pick up
the random electromagnetic radiation we're constantly surrounded by: radio and TV signals as well as spurious electromagnetic noise generated by power lines, motors, electric appliances, computer monitors, and a variety of other sources. The longer the wire, the more noise it is likely to pick up. That's why balanced lines are the best choice for long cable runs. If your "studio" is basically confined to your desktop and all connections are no more than a meter or two in length, then unbalanced lines are fine—unless you're surrounded by extremely high levels of electromagnetic noise. Another place balanced lines are almost always used is in microphone cables. The reason for this is that the output signal from most microphones is very small, so even a tiny amount of noise will be relatively large, and will be amplified to an alarming degree in the mixer's high-gain head amplifier
