What causes a db drop in line level gear?

[analogggman]

I'm getting a .6 db drop on a passive box I built on only one channel. It's happening in bypass, so it can't be the circuit. What could be causing this? I'm about to take apart. I think it could be do to the TRS jack not making a full connection going all the way into the jack, due to the jack not having enough clearance through he front panel. I'm going to give it some more room so the jack sticks out further, hoping this fixes it.

 

[Tubetec]

You would normally expect a 6db drop going from balanced to unbalanced , 0.6 db seems more likely due to loading down of the output .

 

[dmp]

Keep all your questions in your main thread

Probably the insertion loss of the transformers. Check you're bypass wiring

A bad TRS connection would not appear as a small loss, it would be intermittent / scratchy kind of noise and if it you wiggle or move the box it would become much worse.

 

[user 37518]

0.6 dB is too much if there is just wire in the signal path. My best guess is that your bypass is not entirely bypassing everything.

 

[ccaudle]

0.6 dB is too much if there is just wire in the signal path. My best guess is that your bypass is not entirely bypassing everything.

The conversation moved back to the original thread (construction of a box with WE transformers in line), and was determined to be from a misconfiguration of the audio interface which introduced a 0.6dB level reduction in one channel only.