Balanced and Unbalanced Connections

When choosing a cable, the type of connection matters. Learn the difference between a balanced and unbalanced connection.

Key Points:
  • Unbalanced connections and balanced connections have two distinct designs within the cable.
  • Unbalanced connections use a tip and sleeve design. There’s one wire running down the center to carry the signal. The outer ground coil is intended to protect the signal from radio frequency interference. Due to the poor design, unbalanced connections aren’t ideal and have a tendency to incur noise.
  • Balanced connections use a tip, ring, and sleeve (TRS) design. Balanced connections have two wires that carry the same signal on a polarity reverse. This design uses common mode rejection to cancel out noise and ensure a clean signal.

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Audio
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