One is for the audio signal and the other is for the ground.
Balanced vs unbalanced patch cables.
When to use balanced vs.
Two signals wires plus a separate ground wire.
Balanced 1 4 plugs are also commonly referred to as trs tip.
The structure of a balanced audio cable is similar to an unbalanced cable with one addition.
Quarter inch ts tip sleeve cables are generally used for unbalanced signals.
A balanced cable by contrast has three conductors in the connector and three wires in the cable.
Most commonly used for guitar instrument keyboard cables pa patch cables karaoke machine mic inputs etc.
Two signal wires and a ground wire.
The diagram above shows how the cable works.
Today i explain the difference between balanced and unbalanced cables.
Both cables have what is called shields.
This is especially true if it needs to be used in an environment where there s a lot of lights and other stuff that could cause interference.
Balanced vs unbalanced cables an unbalanced cable has only two conductors.
The resulting signal is thus balanced.
The signal from both the hot and cold wire is combined each out of phase with the other.
There are two types of noise that are likely culprits trying to mess up your otherwise perfect audio signals.
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.
The balanced cable will have 1 hot 1 cold and a ground shielding conductor.
1 4 instrument cables 1 4 unbalanced patch cables rca cables 3pin xlr to 1 4 ts unbalanced cables.
These are most commonly used with electric guitars which often output to an amplifier.
If you ripped off an unbalanced cable s enclosure you would see only two wires and a ground shield.
The main difference comparing balanced vs unbalanced cables is a balanced cable has 1 additional conductor.
This question was asked in the comments by jim dowell from the panasonic ub9000 video.
As in the unbalanced cable the ground wire still surrounds the signal wires and is used as a shield against interference.
Balanced balanced 1 4 connectors consist of 2 rings on the plug.