3.5mm Computer output to PA Mixer

30th November

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This is for a church PA system that's probably about 20 years old and still works.

I want to send audio output from a PC (3.5mm headphhone output) to an XLR socket that is about 4m away, which then runs back to a mixer.

Where should the conversion be done and what cable to use to give a good (not perfect) solution? So for example which is better,

a 3.5mm to XLR adapter local to the PC and then a long balanced XLR cable or
a 3.5mm to XLR cable that's 4m long or ?

I read about things like TRS, Neutrik but these don't mean a lot to me. Any recommendations of cable suppliers also welcome.

Many thanks

30th November
 
One of these may well do the trick other than it being only 2 metres long:
Amazon product ASIN B00QMITC7G
You'd therefore need to extend either the 3.5mm end or the XLR end with a 2 metre extension cable to get up to the required 4 metres.

TRS means Tip, Ring and Sleeve. The point end of a 3.5mm jack is the tip, next comes the ring and finally the sleeve. The wiring picture of the above cable on the Amazon page shows the tip is connected to the left channel, the ring is connected to the right channel and the sleeve in the ground connection. Neutrik are a cable manufacturer well known for producing high quality audio and other cables and connectors.

--
JB
 
That cable appear to just short the L+R together.

That is not the way I would construct such a cable for this purpose, as I would use summing resistors (1k should do). For a longer length, then I might also connect the sound ground to the -ve (in addition to the existing screen) as I found in my studio with long unbalanced (TR) to balanced (TRS/XLR) interconnects, doing so provide some induced noise rejection.

If that above cable is used, then I suggest mitigating the shorting of the L+R by setting the computer to output mono only in windows audio settings (I cannot remember where it is).
 
Following up on the good advice from @Khazul.
It is possible to find ready made adapter cables with series resistors which I agree is definately the best way to wire these cables, for example this one from Canford:


They still aren't the full 4 metres so you'd still need an extension but we're getting there.

--
JB
 

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