THE BRICK — UNBALANCED?

[Ted Fletcher]

In a message dated 29/02/2012 08:34:59 GMT Standard Time, alun********@hotmail.com writes:

Hi again Ted,

I stumbled accross this – http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/1995_articles/sep95/joemeek.html

Which for the the first time brings to my attention that the line input and the outputs on the bricks are apparently unbalanced? Is this true? Does that mean i should be using DI boxes on the way out? And what about sending line level in?

Mine are both v1.03 (although the boards say 1.04). So they are unbalanced? I never knew…

Alun.

Yes, the line in and the line out on the Brick are unbalanced, but the line in has a fairly high impedance and the line out is at very low impedance so quality integrity is not a problem; the unbalance can only be significant if it is being connected through long cables to equipment that is separately grounded.

Unbalanced operation is perfectly OK where an installation is small and compact.

For safety, I often drive the unbalanced output as if it was just a pair of wires…. connected to the + and – of a balanced input, this way there can be no ground loops.

No, I would avoid using DI boxes unless you run into a hum problem that can’t be solved in any other way.

[Author]

Posts