Balanced I/O for Pico SE Compressor

[abbey road d enfer]

it kind of irritates me, that I run audio from a desk to lets say different comps & EQs, all balanced, then go into the pico unbalanced

It shouldn't; balanced connections have two purposes: cancelling common mode signals resulting from interference AND eliminating hum resulting from ground loops.
In a typical studio environment, implying smallish cable length, interference is seldom a nagging issue, but ground-loop-induced hum definitely is. Using balanced wiring (2 conductors+shield and 3-pin connectors) between a balanced output and an unbalanced input, or an unbalanced output and a balanced input is perfectly adequate at eliminating hum.

and from there again into a balanced tape machine... wont I loose gain by just discarding the ring signal?

Yes, but you don't want to do that, you need the full balanced wiring.

 

[mokkinger]

Here you go. It's a bit uglier (protection scheme has Vee and Vcc all over the place...) and I didn't really have time to give it an elegant routing, but it should work just fine.

hey man, thats really great! thanks a lot - I think I will give both options a try. tending towards the protected version, although the pico will be somewhere right before my M15A tape maschine... but you never know

the input headers are fine for me!

if anybody needs one of these PCBs, I probably wont ever need 10 Pcs...

Mark

 

[mokkinger]

It shouldn't; balanced connections have two purposes: cancelling common mode signals resulting from interference AND eliminating hum resulting from ground loops.
In a typical studio environment, implying smallish cable length, interference is seldom a nagging issue, but ground-loop-induced hum definitely is. Using balanced wiring (2 conductors+shield and 3-pin connectors) between a balanced output and an unbalanced input, or an unbalanced output and a balanced input is perfectly adequate at eliminating hum.
Yes, but you don't want to do that, you need the full balanced wiring.

Ok, I think I got your point - discarding the balancing - Signal will result in Gain loss, but grounding it on the input of an unbalanced unit would be fine?
Anyways I will build the pico with balanced I/O, to keep the signal path balanced...wont hurt, I guess!?

 

[Newmarket]

Hi Guys,

I finally  finished building my Stereo Pico Compressor, and would now love to include it into my setup... which is all balanced XLR, and I dont want to use it unbalanced as it was designed. Now I thought about a That 1646 circuit similar to the ones from
https://www.diyrecordingequipment.com/collections/all-products/products/balanced-output
which are out of stock and probably discontinued...? 

any idea who makes similar boards, or what other neutral, good sounding balanced I / O solution are there that I could use? 

thanks for hints,
Mark

Build your own on prototyping board ('strip board') ???

 

[mokkinger]

If you want the smaller / cleaner PCB or if you like living on the edge, just use the PCB file "no protection".

hmm... where can I find the PCB File "no protection" in the EasyEDA? I only see the latest one...

 

[emrr]

hmm... where can I find the PCB File "no protection" in the EasyEDA? I only see the latest one...

Just leave the 4 diodes on each output off. 

 

[dogears]

hmm... where can I find the PCB File "no protection" in the EasyEDA? I only see the latest one...

This should be a link to it
https://easyeda.com/editor#id=|38782cd904434ce0969493d52726cb47|e1e2f49eaea14f79bec80314b0e21d56|2c911a5897e944339c2c2be0a736b4f0

 

[mokkinger]

thx! just ordered them.  really appreciate your help!

Mark