Unbalanced Cable Into Balanced Input

Unbalanced line level connections are usually implemented with rca jacks for audio while balanced line level connections typically utilize dual 3 pin xlr jacks for both the input and output.

Unbalanced cable into balanced input.

The structure of a balanced audio cable is similar to an unbalanced cable with one addition. In both cases one jack is normally used for each audio channel left and right. Two signal wires and a ground wire. Balanced cables balanced cables have three wires inside the plastic casing.

A balanced circuit needs to be three wires positive negative and ground all the way through. The advantage of using balanced cables to connect between balanced outputs and balanced inputs is that balanced connections have better noise rejection thanks to a second inverted signal that has equal resistance to ground as the initial signal this inverted or reverse polarity signal is used to cancel noise and to make the signal more robust. Having cables with this kind of output makes it easy to directly connect unbalanced sources such as guitar effects directly into recording gear daws and signal processors with balanced inputs. Even if you plug a balanced cable into an unbalanced output jack the signal will be unbalanced see the downsides of unbalanced above.

If you start with an unbalanced source and an unbalanced cable two wires that signal will remain unbalanced when you plug it into a balanced input. The signal wires pass an identical audio signal through each wire while the surrounding ground wire works the same as in unbalanced cables shielding the signal wires from external electronic interference. You can with some caveats. Almost any combination of audio connection is possible but not necessarily standard or stock.

An xlr connector configured for an unbalanced output. Where it gets a little more custom so to speak is ts or rca outputs to xlr inputs for example. The diagram above shows how the cable works.