On 08/08/2010, Cotty <[email protected]> wrote: > Was going to write to Rob and Cory off list but I'll throw it open as > I'm a glutton for punishment and someone somewhere might glean a tidbit here. > > Wiring explanation please! > > I'm coming out of a portable computer and going into a Fostex squawkbox. > The computer audio out is stereo 3.5mm TRS (mini-jack) and the Fostex is > a standard XLR in. > > Obviously I'm wanting to take the stereo signal and listen to it through > a single mono speaker. > > I've bought a 3.5mm male to XLR male lead but the sound is crap and only > hearing one side! In my Land Rover I use a stereo system - a 3.5mm lead > out of the Macbook to 2 RCA females and then another lead with 2 RCA > males leading to 2 XLR males which go into 2 Fostex speakers (don't ask, > it's what I had in the parts bin). This gives me left and right audio as > needed while editing. > > I took half of this setup off the Land Rover and popped it onto my > single Fostex in the house and that works fine. But the lead I bought > doesn't :-( > > So - take me through from the 3.5mm jack into the lead and at the XLR > end, what should be connected to what? Obviously I've got 3 wires from > the 3.5mm jack - tip, ring and sleeve - which goes to which of the 3 > terminals on the XLR - 1 Chassis, 2 hot, 3 return. > > Answers on a postcard please. Then copy by hand onto a reply email :-)))
With out looking at other answers I would suggest decking pin 3 (-ve or cold) on the XLR to pin 1 (earth), then you feed your signal into pin 2 (+ve or hot) and have effectively converted the fostex to an unbalanced input. If you simply feed left into one xlr input and right into the other you'll only hear the L-R component of the stereo feed, so any true mono signals will disappear. It's a bit of stuffing about but the best way would be to mix the L & R signals into pin 2 of the XLR via a pair of series resisitors on each incoming signal wire from the PC. Anything from about 470R to 10k ohms would do the trick (so long as the Fostex has a bit of gain up its sleeve. -- Rob Studdert (Digital Image Studio) Tel: +61-418-166-870 UTC +10 Hours Gmail, eBay, Skype, Twitter, Facebook, Picasa: distudio -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.

