Stereo (twin) RCA output from mixer to a mono speaker with XLR input.

[daba]

There are loads of threads on the internet for going XLR to RCA, but can't seem to find any info on how to wire the two RCA outputs of my mixer to a single XLR input on the powered speaker. To get a half-decent sound at the moment I have to lift one of the RCAs, but then I'm not getting the other channel audio, and it sounds weird sometimes.

Is it simply the case of JOINING the two stereo signals and feeding it to the "hot" of the XLR speaker input, then connecting both shields to pins 1 and 3 of the XLR ?

Any help would be appreciated.....

TIA

[rth_discos]

There are loads of threads on the internet for going XLR to RCA, but can't seem to find any info on how to wire the two RCA outputs of my mixer to a single XLR input on the powered speaker. To get a half-decent sound at the moment I have to lift one of the RCAs, but then I'm not getting the other channel audio, and it sounds weird sometimes.

Is it simply the case of JOINING the two stereo signals and feeding it to the "hot" of the XLR speaker input, then connecting both shields to pins 1 and 3 of the XLR ?

Any help would be appreciated.....

TIA

The XLR input is mono and balanced. The RCA output is unbalanced.

The easiest route is via a small mixer, like this: https://www.thomann.co.uk/behringer_xenyx_502s.htm

That will take the phono inputs and output 1 XLR to the speaker.

I'd recommend running your playout software in mono for this.

There are converters which will convert the unbalanced audio to balanced, but you'll find the mixer above just as cost effective, and will have many other users.

Out of interest, does the speaker have any other inputs? If it has a Jack input then you may find more luck in getting the phono to a jack and going that way (again only going to be on channel).

Finally, you *may* be able to get away with this, but again one channel: https://www.thomann.co.uk/cordial_cfu_15_mc.htm

I wouldn't recommend combining a stereo channel into one xlr plug.

[DJ Jules]

Going from unbalanced phono to balanced XLR isn't an issue and there are a ton of wiring diagrams out there that show how to do it (and I do this all the time using an off the shelf phono to xlr cable). Combining two signals (of any type) is the issue - you can't just join the outputs without potentially damaging the output stage of whatever device you're using as a music source. You need either a mixer or, at the bare minimum, a couple of resistors. Again, wiring diagrams are readily available from Google.

You will get better results and more control with a compact mixer, but obviously will need power and all the extra in/out cables so it's a case of whether it's worth the cost/inconvenience for you. There are also passive (and active) DI boxes available that are built for exactly what you're trying to do (but they're a similar price as a small mixer).

[daba]

The easiest route is via a small mixer, like this: https://www.thomann.co.uk/behringer_xenyx_502s.htm

I'm using a small mixer, similar to the one you've shown - a Xenyx302USB, and it only has twin RCA outputs, not XLR

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That will take the phono inputs and output 1 XLR to the speaker.

You've got it backwards, I'm not using phono (RCA) inputs. The XLR on the mixer is for a MIC


I'd recommend running your playout software in mono for this.

If only I could, but the audio is encoded stereo from the laptop via the USB codec.


Out of interest, does the speaker have any other inputs? If it has a Jack input then you may find more luck in getting the phono to a jack and going that way (again only going to be on channel).

The speaker has a combined XLR/Jack socket, just like the MIC socket on the mixer.

[daba]

I've just found this on the web, obviously the 10K resistors provide isolation to the stereo outputs ...

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[rth_discos]

You've got it backwards, I'm not using phono (RCA) inputs. The XLR on the mixer is for a MIC


Yes, I meant output not input



If only I could, but the audio is encoded stereo from the laptop via the USB codec.

What software are you using? I was using Virtual DJ, and I always ran it in Mono anyway - I had a plugin on the output to make it mono.

That would be your quickest fix, as then the 1 phono to XLR cable that you have that is currently working would be perfect.

Also, is there no option to run a second spea

I'd consider upgrading your little mixer though, as it's not that great only having phono outputs as an option.

[daba]

What software are you using? I was using Virtual DJ, and I always ran it in Mono anyway - I had a plugin on the output to make it mono.


Karafun Karaoke Software, no option to switch to Mono. I've asked if they can do it, but I'm dubious if they can. As it's USB CODEC output to the mixer, that'll be embedded in Windows


Also, is there no option to run a second speaker

That's a possibility, although space is vary limited, and these speakers are INCREDIBLY heavy, I can't lift one on my own, so setting up 2 would be a real chore.


I'd consider upgrading your little mixer though, as it's not that great only having phono outputs as an option.

The mixer you linked to just has a choice of Jack or RCA outputs, and I can make up cables to what I need, so "upgrading" would be a fruitless exercise, to be honest"

Just to dot i's and cross t's, this XLR speaker is to be used as a backup, it's one of the venue's DAP PRO MATE 3 setup they use for live bands. I need a backup in case my speaker blows up (again), KAM are not brilliant, in fact, P.O.S. !! Look up the specs of the amplifier chip it uses, a TDA7377, and you'll see that it can only deliver a maximum of 40W - the RZ12AP V3 is sold as having "800W Output" !! It's already blow 3 amplifiers, and I can get replacements at around £20 a time, that tells you something about them...

[Corabar Steve]

TBH, I'd ditch the mixer & get one with XLR outs. RCA is always unbalanced & therefore more liable to pick up interference, hums etc, but RCA outs are around 14db quieter than XLRs.

If you really need a small form mixer, you'd not go far wrong with one of these, which (as you're doing karaoke) has the bonus of effects on the mic channels.

https://europe.yamaha.com/en/files/MG06X_front_d232abb4669e56cd52af0adb6429d9dd.jpg?i mpolicy=resize&imwid=1578&imhei=2000?imbypass=on

[Excalibur]

I must be missing something here. :daft:
So your own PA keeps self destructing, and as an emergency measure, you lash a signal cable into one in-house cab to keep going. Personally, I'd be buying a PA that kept going, rather than replacing the fried ones even at only £20 a pop.

I can find own brand 12" cabs ( Gear4music ) below £500 a pair, Mackie Thrash around £500 per pair, and s/h RCF 312s in the same ballpark. That's without searching diligently.

[rth_discos]

Just to dot i's and cross t's, this XLR speaker is to be used as a backup

If this is just an absolute backup, then just running one channel, which works fine as it is, is your solution.

[daba]

It looks like the venue's speaker is going to be in use for a while now. My KAM speaker didn't work properly last night, no output from the 12" driver at all.

And from an earlier thread, I made up the following adapter cable to put my stereo signal into the speakers XLR input, and it didn't work as I thought it would. I was only getting one channel of the stereo, confirmed by "panning" the signal. One way OK, the other way, no signal. I ended up pulling one of the RCA plugs out of the mixer, and running the gig on one channel only, hardly ideal.

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[Excalibur]

Far be it from me to pour cold water on your efforts so far, but considering the time and energy you've invested in pushing this rock uphill, and watching it roll back down to the bottom each week, why not just buy either two budget cabs with greater reliability than the Kam offerings, or if space is at a premium, one cab with a two channel input of some sort. I'd recommend a Polar/Polars, but you can get similar style animals for less money.

If you don't want a column, you can get a 15" cab for £250 which ought to fit the bill.

Good luck, however you decide to go forward.

[daba]

Far be it from me to pour cold water on your efforts so far, but considering the time and energy you've invested in pushing this rock uphill, and watching it roll back down to the bottom each week, why not just buy either two budget cabs with greater reliability than the Kam offerings, or if space is at a premium, one cab with a two channel input of some sort. I'd recommend a Polar/Polars, but you can get similar style animals for less money.

If you don't want a column, you can get a 15" cab for £250 which ought to fit the bill.

Good luck, however you decide to go forward.

You are absolutely right ! : I've had it with KAM, and am now actively looking for a replacement. However the budget is tight, I'm not a professional, and on a pension, so have to watch the spend.

I did buy a pair of Vonyx speakers (can't remember the model number), but sent them back as they couldn't deliver the power (another lie in the specs, I fear), and I could discern a "fluttering" on the mid-range, very disconcerting.

I bought a Pyle PPHP1542B, again lacking in power, (yet another marketing lie), so have that up for sale at a bargain price.

I am very concerned that this market is littered with unrealistic claims on output power, I suspect that many of the CE (China Export) marked models are economical with the truth.

Anyway, I have my eyes on a Mackie SRM450 (used), for a very good price.
Also looking at Behringer PK115A, also a good price new.
I looked at a QTX 15", that one might be a realistic 100W RMS output.

I'd be interested to hear of other names to go for, hopefully those who offer realistic power outputs. There's so many out there.

EDIT : Whatever I go for, it will have to have twin RCA inputs, that will keep things simple.

[Excalibur]

You are absolutely right ! : I've had it with KAM, and am now actively looking for a replacement. However the budget is tight, I'm not a professional, and on a pension, so have to watch the spend.


EDIT : Whatever I go for, it will have to have twin RCA inputs, that will keep things simple.

Right, let's get the warning out of the way first, the vicious circle. It's not exclusive to you, we've all been there at some time, self included.

Budget is tight, you buy something new, cheap, and often underpowered, so it's a tad quiet, so you have to turn it up past its " cruising speed " and eventually it self destructs. At a time when I was struggling, I ran a pair of s/h 12" QTX cabs, and as long as I ran them within their limits they sounded absolutely fine.
This model (https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/146185015995?_skw=qtx+speakers&itmmeta=01JCXFP78EZHXS6V78097D0VHD&hash=item22094e52bb:g:ozkAAOSwalxm-VVL&itmprp=enc%3AAQAJAAAA8HoV3kP08IDx%2BKZ9MfhVJKkvpd1 VcDXXq1XsLhpySTY616PgAervwuTwQ5nsCn2S2GQw5Y2fekX%2 BE3etTvN2TgLUG%2BZZKzffwix7COD3FKErQnCDjLKixC%2Bd2 4RJBp0UEXNJTArbB07l1Ds0dC5Ox8f7IwoHXYOJKrfEK2cawLV xr%2BCx9%2BcfSOy1G8ahhyEx%2BuUGSR6w6gyq5A0wB1EsUdY 7bOHZ1DI3x6BL%2BBcjOo7ApLViN9n7bJGM7elvdexHhX4J0yQ rIuBYmCPAQqELv3OOHk4jvY%2BayOG7yU2yzG9GwVuFN626MxK WWScLJD0XDA%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR6r02K_nZA) but 12". It's claiming 250w RMS, which I reckon it will get near. The old Mackie 450s are beasts, and will be the loudest thing you'll lay hands upon for the money, but: they're a tad " bright", cough, cough. Turn the High frequencies down , for best results. The oldest ones are fairly bulletproof, the newest ones too, but they had a period with perceived cooling issues. Many of us believe it was actually a safety feature getting a wrong signal. Many folk also strap fans on them, as a precaution.
Personally, I'd avoid Mackie Thumps/Thrashes/Crashes/Wallops etc, they're not well regarded.
Behringer actives don't usually respond well to being pushed hard. I worked with a live act who did two sets. First set, they sounded fine, at lower volumes. Second set, when he wound them up a bit was painful. :(

[DJ Jules]

It looks like the venue's speaker is going to be in use for a while now. My KAM speaker didn't work properly last night, no output from the 12" driver at all.

And from an earlier thread, I made up the following adapter cable to put my stereo signal into the speakers XLR input, and it didn't work as I thought it would. I was only getting one channel of the stereo, confirmed by "panning" the signal. One way OK, the other way, no signal. I ended up pulling one of the RCA plugs out of the mixer, and running the gig on one channel only, hardly ideal.

19181

The only reason this would work on one channel and not the other is because you have a broken connection somewhere (or the signal/ground got swapped in the cable). If you've got a multi-meter, check the resistance on the connections between the RCA inputs and the pins on the XLR to make sure they're as expected.

Lots of the cheaper cabs have ridiculous, unrealistic power ratings and poor output. I had an email from one of the retailers last week advertising a new range of budget cabs with "1600w max output" but then an spl of 120db which suggests that their true RMS power is more like 100-200w.

There's lots of good and reliable cabs kicking around the second hand market.

Julian

[rth_discos]

I'd be interested to hear of other names to go for, hopefully those who offer realistic power outputs. There's so many out there.


Don't buy new.

For your budget, you're far better off picking up a second hand pair of speakers with a decent brand on them like RCF or FBT etc etc.

[Excalibur]

Don't buy new.

For your budget, you're far better off picking up a second hand pair of speakers with a decent brand on them like RCF or FBT etc etc.

Absolutely, but:

and its a big but:

RCF in particular tend to only have one input channel per cab, we had someone on here recently with RCF 910 units, whose plans were scuppered for that very reason.

[rth_discos]

Absolutely, but:

and its a big but:

RCF in particular tend to only have one input channel per cab, we had someone on here recently with RCF 910 units, whose plans were scuppered for that very reason.

I would always have 2 speakers anyway.

I can't imagine ever only running one cabinet - because running 2 powered cabs means you automatically have some built in redundancy. And second hand will nearly always come as a pair too.

[Corabar Steve]

EDIT : Whatever I go for, it will have to have twin RCA inputs, that will keep things simple.

Without wishing to sound snotty, why are you so insistent on RCA inputs?

RCA cable of longer than 10' is prone to picking up interference, hums, radio signals etc (being unbalanced).

RCA output is also something like 12 - 14 dB quieter than a balanced TRS or XLR. Meaning you're probably pushing your speaker quite hard to compensate, could be where your problem blowing them lies.

If you only want to use one speaker, this means you're working in mono, regardless of how many inputs it has. Can you not run in mono by XLR to a single speaker? Or, if mono output isn't an option, how about a Y splitter to XLR (depending on what's available from your mixer) like these? (bear in mind, that as they are balanced, you can run any length XLR cable you need from them).

https://www.designacable.com/balanced-male-xlr-split-into-dual-x2-balanced-jacks.html

https://www.designacable.com/dual-x2-balanced-female-xlrs-summed-to-single-balanced-male-xlr.html

[Excalibur]

I would always have 2 speakers anyway.

I can't imagine ever only running one cabinet - because running 2 powered cabs means you automatically have some built in redundancy. And second hand will nearly always come as a pair too.

OP specifies one cab. Don't know why, but that's the ground rules. My first, second and third choice would be an HK Polar, fourth choice two HK Polars, but even these value for money systems are over budget, it seems.

He's a bit far from York, or I'd suggest a listen to some of the own brand Gear4music column rigs. They're not at all bad. I reckon a half decent column might be his best bet.

I agree we're probably best off in s/h territory, but the twin channel stipulation makes it trickier. Mackie v1 and v2 are single channel, most RCF cabs are. Pro gear tends to be single channel, working on the premise that most times there will be two cabs, as you say.

PS. I often take one Polar to smaller functions, did so on Saturday. Worked well.

[rth_discos]

PS. I often take one Polar to smaller functions, did so on Saturday. Worked well.

As I'm also a big fan of the column speakers (the Maui 5 was my weapon of choice), and their performance always surprises me, I doubt the OP can go too far wrong with one of these:

https://www.gear4music.com/PA-DJ-and-Lighting/SubZero-L410X-Bluetooth-Column-PA-System/2WYE

Or, if volume really isn't needed, then the cheaper 8 inch sub version

https://www.gear4music.com/PA-DJ-and-Lighting/SubZero-L48-Bluetooth-Column-DSP-PA-System/63A2

Ticks all of the required boxes. Even has RCA inputs, so surely bonus points for that lol!

As a caveat, I've never heard one of these in action, but based on what we're comparing it against in terms of the speakers used so far, I can't see him going far wrong with one of these.

[Excalibur]

As I'm also a big fan of the column speakers (the Maui 5 was my weapon of choice), and their performance always surprises me, I doubt the OP can go too far wrong with one of these:

https://www.gear4music.com/PA-DJ-and-Lighting/SubZero-L410X-Bluetooth-Column-PA-System/2WYE

Or, if volume really isn't needed, then the cheaper 8 inch sub version

https://www.gear4music.com/PA-DJ-and-Lighting/SubZero-L48-Bluetooth-Column-DSP-PA-System/63A2

Ticks all of the required boxes. Even has RCA inputs, so surely bonus points for that lol!

As a caveat, I've never heard one of these in action, but based on what we're comparing it against in terms of the speakers used so far, I can't see him going far wrong with one of these.

We're on the same page here Gavin. If we ignore fiscal constraints, we're spoilt for choice. I have heard the 410 and was impressed. For the money, it's in the frame. I think I wouldn't expect the 48 to hack it, but like you, I'd back the Maui 5 to do well. Any of the Mauis second hand, 5, 11 or 28 would be a strong contender.

Steve, I'd expect there's a good chance that the OP has a playout with RCA outputs, or even mini jack. Thus, the wish for RCA inputs on the speaker. Finding the cables to connect different flavours of sockets is the least of our worries, I'd say. XLR are fitted to Pro speakers for exactly the reasons you give, and as you say, a point often missed is that they often have a higher output than other connector types.

[Nakatomi]

Having heard & used active speakers of diferent makes & budgets over the years there's no way I'd trust any active cab that costs under £400 a side to work reliably at parties of up to 80 people at a reasonable volume.

Vonyx, Citronic, JBL, Ibiza Sound, KAM etc aren't what I consider JUNK as such, but when something is that cheap to buy new you have to consider that everything is built to a price target. If that price target is low, performance & longevity are going to suffer. Imagine a triangle with 'cheap' 'long lasting' and 'loud enough' on each side. You can only ever have 2 out of three.

As others have said, if you can't afford to buy a better make brand new, scour the used marketplaces (and dealers) for preloved kit.

My first active speakers were a pair of Mackie SRM450s (mark 1) I got from a geezer on Gumtree. They cost me £250 - less than a pair of brand new bottom rung speakers & I'm reliably informed are still going strong. At my first couple of gigs I used them with a mixer that had only RCA outputs & the sound was FINE.

That said, you should ideally always be using balanced audio going to your PA. I know you said you're not a 'pro' but what's wrong with acting a bit more pro? ;)

If all your audio from Karafun is going through Windows (I sure hope you've disabled all system sounds BTW), you can get all sound to be output MONO no problem. In windows 10 & up (maybe 7 too I don't know) go to Ease of Access settings, find the Audio part & there you should see the 'Turn on mono audio' setting. Tadaaaaaaaaaaaa!
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I normally work with stereo, but sometimes I only need one speaker or my speakers have to be set up too far apart for stereo to really work - in those cases I switch my MC7000 to mono on the back. Other times I might play a track in mono because it just sounds better that way. For that I use a free plugin DFX Monomaker. It's great for Motown, NS & Mr Brightside :lol: