Balanced 1/4 or XLR output for Mac?

[Macville]

I need balanced 1/4 or XLR out of my G5 for my audio monitors. So far, the cheapest cards/interfaces I have found is the M-Audio Audiophile 192 and Delta44. My question is, are there any others to consider that might be cheaper? All I need is balanced sound out, no inputs or anything fancy. I am afraid I am stuck paying $150, but if I must...

Thanks,

Matthew Rogers

http://www.forthetitlethemovie.com/

 

[Noiz2]

What are you trying to listen to? If it's just iTunes and such you could go out of the Mac direct. It is actually unlikely that you have to go balanced into the speakers. If you look at the manual you will probably find that the 1/4" can be unbalanced also. If it really truly needs balanced then you can go to Radio Shack (or most audio stores) and get a pair of line transformers. Probably the simplest rout is mic cable > line transformer (they most commonly come female XLR to male 1/4") > 1/4" turnaround > 1/4" to 1/8" stereo mini plug > G5.

A reason to get a card or USB ~ Firewire interface is that they will have better sound and less distortion than the built in sound card and may also be a lot quieter (some of Macs audio outs have been pretty noisy in the past). Also you should be able to find a USB interface for under $100.

 

[Macville]

What are you trying to listen to? If it's just iTunes and such you could go out of the Mac direct. It is actually unlikely that you have to go balanced into the speakers. If you look at the manual you will probably find that the 1/4" can be unbalanced also. If it really truly needs balanced then you can go to Radio Shack (or most audio stores) and get a pair of line transformers. Probably the simplest rout is mic cable > line transformer (they most commonly come female XLR to male 1/4") > 1/4" turnaround > 1/4" to 1/8" stereo mini plug > G5.

A reason to get a card or USB ~ Firewire interface is that they will have better sound and less distortion than the built in sound card and may also be a lot quieter (some of Macs audio outs have been pretty noisy in the past). Also you should be able to find a USB interface for under $100.

I want a balanced sound card because there is a lot of noise on the G5's line out and on my M-Audio Sonica USB line out. It's really frustrating that there is not a simple/cheap solution for balanced output (of course, most people don't need that, and if they do they can afford the cards.)

Matthew

 

[Noiz2]

That is sort of what I was getting at. THe G5 out is probably noisy. A balanced out isn't going to help with that. THe only thing a balanced cable helps with is RF that would get into the signal from the cable being close to AC lines etc. There shouldn't be hum on the USB box. You may have a ground loop problem. Try using a ground lifter on one or both of the speakers. That may do it and you will have spent <$1. Also look at you cable runs. You should not have any audio cables running with AC or other power cables. If they need to cross each other the closer you get to a 90 degree crossing the less likely you are to pick up hum. Also if you are using any tube video monitors keep the audio cables as far away as possible, especially the back.

 

[cinemakinoeye]

You may have a ground loop problem. Try using a ground lifter on one or both of the speakers. That may do it and you will have spent <$1. Also look at you cable runs. You should not have any audio cables running with AC or other power cables. If they need to cross each other the closer you get to a 90 degree crossing the less likely you are to pick up hum. Also if you are using any tube video monitors keep the audio cables as far away as possible, especially the back.

At least with my PowerMac G5, the noise was being injected into the audio signal by the Mac itself. At first I thought it was interesting hearing the Mac render and when it went quiet I knew the rendering was done. After a few days, I got an Audio Out card. It's a handy thing to have. For monitoring you don't need Balanced, so I went for the cheapest card that sounded good, so I got an M-Audio Delta Audiophile 24/96 (2 analog RCA ins, 2 analog RCA outs). Now the audio output is totally quiet. It sounds good too. And it's handy to have line-leve inputs too, which I sometimes use for recording narration.

Good grounding and all the stuff Noiz2 talks about still applies.