The Score Magazine October 2022 issue | Page 49

and the other being the “ hot conductor ” for plus . The +/ - designation is not really correct , especially since musicians work with AC voltage at this point anyway . In addition , there is the shielding , which is connected to the signal source such as a microphone on one or both sides , and to the signal receiver such as the mixer on the other side . The signal receiver is also referred to as the signal sink . The trick of the symmetrical is that the same voltage is sent through the two signal lines through the cable on both signal lines and the oscillations are mirror-inverted . And that has a clear impact on the suppression of background noise . XLR cables are usually balanced .

Eliminate background noise with phase inversion

It is and will remain complex . And we don ’ t want to get too deep into the physical and mathematical calculation bases and formulas . However , we have to understand that the two inverted signals would – without any further trick – cancel each other out completely . As you hear , you hear nothing ! That was and is of course not the point of the matter .

1 . Asymmetrical signal routing

We speak of asymmetrical cables when the strips have a signal-carrying line and a shield . And no , this is not a weather-friendly umbrella , but rather a shield against interference from external magnetic fields .
Rather , the original signal is mixed with only one of the two phases and remains audible at the end . The background noise , in turn , is picked up by both lines , whereupon the phase-inverted signal cancels out the regular phase . The physical magic wand was waved in the cable . There is no or at most little background noise . The signal has been sent through the electromagnetic washing machine .
Typical unbalanced cables are , for example , instrument cables with a 6.3 mm mono jack or cinch cables . Speaker cables are also usually asymmetrical ( or asymmetrical in musicians ’ jargon ) since shielding is simply not necessary . To get to the point again : Asymmetric cables are single-core , shielded audio lines , where the shielding serves as a necessary second line .

2 . Balanced signal routing

In contrast , symmetrical cables have two signal-carrying conductors , one being the socalled “ cold conductor ” for minus
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