Originally Posted By: Guitarhacker
Originally Posted By: Matt Finley
Good point. There can be many sources of electromagnetic interference in a church (or any commercial building), such as industrial heating/AC, refrigeration, fluorescent lighting, neon signs (well, maybe not in most churches!), electrical wiring, etc. Using balanced cables in such situations is important.

Aside: I played in one church that was next to a radio transmission tower. We could not get the station's signal out of the audio no matter what. It also played in the toaster etc. The church burned down, cause unknown. I always wondered what was pulsing in the building's electrical wiring...


In all of the bands I played in, none of them ever used balanced lines to feed the amps in the PA. We used shielded 1/4" unbalanced lines and never had any problem with hum or interference except one nightclub that was 300 yards from an AM radio station. Since the radio station reduced power at sunset, that issue went away as well by the time we played the shows there.

Balanced is better, but often, not necessary.





It's not a matter of it being 'better'. There is a right way to wire a PA, and a wrong way. grin


All cabling is "shielded".


XLR mic cables are balanced. Mixer insert cables are balanced (TRS). Mixer to amp cables are balanced. GEQ's to amp cables are balanced. External processor cables are balanced. This is done because pro equipment operates at +4dBu, and because hum and interference is cumulative in a system.

PA speaker cables are not balanced, but if they cross AC lines, they will pick up AC interference, usually in the form of 60 Hz hum.

Dyslectics Untie!


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