Balanced vs.

Unbalanced Connections
When making connections between electronic components, one must use cables. Among the many types of cables available, in an audio equipment setting we may choose for balanced and unbalanced connections depending on the conte t, equipment and required cable length. Unbalanced connections refer to cables with two conductors, one of them running through the center of the cable continuously and another surrounding the insulation as a shield. !his shield, be it braided, twisted or foil"based, protects the central conductor from e ternal electrostatic noise and radio frequencies by running these elements into ground. !his way the noise won#t interfere with the signal being transmitted by the conductor. $owever, the shield must be connected on both ends in order to pass unwanted noise to the ground. !hese connections are mostly used in instrument cables %characteristically !& '()* to !& '()* connections+ and cables designed for home stereos and C, players %which are usually !& '()* to -CA connections+, mainly due to the shorter length required by those appliances. As situations and equipment demand longer cables %such as live concerts, microphones and monitor systems+, interference from electrostatic noise and radio frequencies become bigger problems. .f we were to use unbalanced connections in these situations, interference along the length of the cable would penetrate the shield and reach the central connector, mi ing in with the signal and generating amplified noise. !o avoid this, we use balanced connections. .nstead of only two conductors, these connections have three %two of them central wires and one of them functioning an e ternal shield+. !he two central conductor wires are of inverted polarity in relation to each other %in other words, one of them is positive and *in phase* with the source signal, and the other is negative and *out of phase* with the same signal+. We call these connections *balanced* since each conductor is connected to devices identical impedance levels at source and at load points. An amplifier at one end measures the difference of voltage between the outgoing and incoming wires, and re/ects the noise level common to both wires. &ince the two wires are out of phase with each other, positive noise signal cancels out negative noise signal. !his will keep out most electromagnetic noise that would interfere with the desired signal.

Another element that balanced connections have for improved noise re/ection is the presence of a shield that does not function as a signal conductor. Any noise it intercepts will be transmitted through the outer layer of the cable without interfering with the inner conductors.