Headphone Heights

RE: Questions:

64.122.72.31

Ralph

In Reply to: RE: Questions: posted by genungo on July 27, 2011 at 13:54:37

The 3-wire system shares one conductor with each channel. So there is quite a lot of crosstalk. As soon as you separate the conductors, things sound instantly better.

I agree with Steve Eddy- I prefer to use the 4-pin XLR- its a bit less chassis real estate. Either XLR connector will sound fine though.

Follow Ups:

RE: Common ground - unclestu 16:29:23 07/27/11 (3)
The vast majority of preamps I've seen share a common ground bus on their inputs and outputs.

Stu
- RE: Common ground - Ralph 07:47:49 07/28/11 (2)
  Yes- I imagine many do. But the signal that is being heard is routed though a selector switch so the circuit is not complete for the unused inputs. So we are really concerned about how the ground is managed for the input that is in use, and in a number of preamps I think this is a problem!
  
  However even if you have such a preamp in your system, the improvement a 4-wire setup offers is still quite audible.
  - RE: Common ground - unclestu 15:04:24 07/28/11 (1)
    However, the ground of both channels are usually shared, like the headphone wire. The outputs normally have common grounds too. In many preamps, the output and input grounds all share the same bus.
    
    Bear in mind I am not quibbling about the benefits of separate grounds, just that the situation exists in many other components.
    
    Stu
    - RE: Common ground - Ralph 08:10:23 07/29/11 (0)
      Certainly in most that is true. Our preamps appear to be an exception.
      
      Regardless, in all the situations I have tried with out equipment or any other, it seems to help a lot to use the 4-wire connection for the 'phones.
RE: Questions: - Steve Eddy 14:19:15 07/27/11 (1)
Actually most all of the crosstalk is due to the common ground contact resistance of the TRS plug/jack combination.

In other words, even single-ended output amplifiers benefit from a 4 pin XLR with the common ground accomplished via a good low resistance solder connection inside the chassis.

se
- RE: Questions: - Ralph 07:40:50 07/28/11 (0)
  Yes- very similar to what happens with a ground loop.

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