I'm looking for some shorting bars for XLR connectors. These are used in (some of) Nelson's amps to allow them to be run in unbalanced mode. Anyone know where I can find them (US suppliers)?
Thanks,
Bryan A. Thompson
bryan@batee.com
Thanks,
Bryan A. Thompson
bryan@batee.com
Yes, I considered DIY, but then I reasoned that it would look like a piece of bent Romex and gave up on the idea.
I went on to consider a piece of coat hanger, paper clips, a gum wrapper, a bent nail, and lastly a piece of garden twine. These worked (to varying degrees), but they still didn't provide the professional look that I wanted, so I gave up on them as well.
I went on to consider a piece of coat hanger, paper clips, a gum wrapper, a bent nail, and lastly a piece of garden twine. These worked (to varying degrees), but they still didn't provide the professional look that I wanted, so I gave up on them as well.
i dont know what you are doing wrong, but making your own shouldnt look any different than a commercial one.
step 1, get some large guage copper wire (solid of course). cut and strip a length of it. maybe about 3 inches long.
step 2, using your fingers, pull it straight, so you get it as straight as possible.
step 3, using a pair of pliers, firmly grasp the wire about 1/3 the way up. firmly press the wire so that you bend it at a nice 90 degree angle. it should look like a right angle, not a smooth curve.
step 4, measure the distance from hole to hole on the xlr jack. position pliers so you can make another 90 degree bend, repeat step 3.
step 5, cut wire so both ends are the same length, so they are even.
step 6, use!
see picture. took longer to write this email. took about 30 seconds to make the jumper. (it looks uneven, that's just the angle of the picture).
step 1, get some large guage copper wire (solid of course). cut and strip a length of it. maybe about 3 inches long.
step 2, using your fingers, pull it straight, so you get it as straight as possible.
step 3, using a pair of pliers, firmly grasp the wire about 1/3 the way up. firmly press the wire so that you bend it at a nice 90 degree angle. it should look like a right angle, not a smooth curve.
step 4, measure the distance from hole to hole on the xlr jack. position pliers so you can make another 90 degree bend, repeat step 3.
step 5, cut wire so both ends are the same length, so they are even.
step 6, use!
see picture. took longer to write this email. took about 30 seconds to make the jumper. (it looks uneven, that's just the angle of the picture).
Attachments
batee said:
i said specifically not to use that exact wire. if you get a plated wire, you will be fine. also, just dont touch the wire, and use some wipes on it, and it will be fine.
the tapered screws are pretty standard. i got them at www.microfasteners.com. they have nice hardware.
if you dont like the jumper idea (commercially made ones will be identical...), then get one of these:
http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?&Partnumber=092-309
and internally solder the pins.
the pass labs stuff has an rca and xlr, and you need to jumper the xlr to get the rca to work, right?
Sharing this paragraph from P.5 of the XA200 manual:
The amplifier may be driven single-end or balanced, your choice. Single-ended input will always occur through the RCA connector and balanced input will always occur through the XLR connector. If driving the amplifier single-ended leave the supplied jumper in place between pins 1 & 3 on the input XLR. On the XLR connectors pin 1 is ground, pin two is positive input and pin 3 is inverted (negative) input. Pin numbers are marked on the XLR.
On P5 of the XA200 manual there is a line drawing of the connector with jumper installed.
The amplifier may be driven single-end or balanced, your choice. Single-ended input will always occur through the RCA connector and balanced input will always occur through the XLR connector. If driving the amplifier single-ended leave the supplied jumper in place between pins 1 & 3 on the input XLR. On the XLR connectors pin 1 is ground, pin two is positive input and pin 3 is inverted (negative) input. Pin numbers are marked on the XLR.
On P5 of the XA200 manual there is a line drawing of the connector with jumper installed.
yep. the inputs are run parallel, meaning both are always active. but to use the rca, the xlr needs to be shorted.
you can either use a jumper like i showed, or you can make an adapter (like i showed in the link), OR, make a cable as suggested by wuffwaff. if you already have interconnects, you might not want to make your own cable, but you COULD get an XLR>RCA adapter and put it at the preamp side, and use an xlr cable from adapter to the amp.
you can either use a jumper like i showed, or you can make an adapter (like i showed in the link), OR, make a cable as suggested by wuffwaff. if you already have interconnects, you might not want to make your own cable, but you COULD get an XLR>RCA adapter and put it at the preamp side, and use an xlr cable from adapter to the amp.
Not DIY but IMO a good solution:
http://www.neutrik.com/content/products/detail.aspx?id=210_62241&catId=CatMSDE_audio
/Hugo
http://www.neutrik.com/content/products/detail.aspx?id=210_62241&catId=CatMSDE_audio
/Hugo
Er...why not just use a switch?
Silly of me, I know. But think it though: No cosmetic problems. No parts to lose. No mistakenly getting the wire in the wrong pair of holes. No fumbling and dropping things behind the amp.
And not particularly expensive, either. Probably less than some of those fancy Neutrik plugs.
Grey
Silly of me, I know. But think it though: No cosmetic problems. No parts to lose. No mistakenly getting the wire in the wrong pair of holes. No fumbling and dropping things behind the amp.
And not particularly expensive, either. Probably less than some of those fancy Neutrik plugs.
Grey
Banned
Joined 2002
Why not just buy a XLR connector and make a shorted one ?
OR do what i do make a shorted one and turn it into a Single ended cable so you can run your single ended gear. My Alephs use balanced or single ended, they have only one connector on the back tho, a xlr, depending on what pre-amp im running it will determine if i use the balanced cables or the Single ended cables.
J'
Do you have a picture of what this part is that you are after ?
OR do what i do make a shorted one and turn it into a Single ended cable so you can run your single ended gear. My Alephs use balanced or single ended, they have only one connector on the back tho, a xlr, depending on what pre-amp im running it will determine if i use the balanced cables or the Single ended cables.
J'
Do you have a picture of what this part is that you are after ?
I love that no one accepts that this is how I wanted to spend my money.
The idea that I can use the diff nature of the amp to cancel out the noise introduced by the wire is an interesting one. If I were going to run unbalanced permanently, I'd probably do this.
The tutorial on bending a piece of Romex with a pair of needlenose pliers is stellar, but I confess that I got far more benefit from the posted source for small fasteners.
Grey's switch idea is a good one, and it's the one I'd have chosen if selectable Balanced/Unbalanced were a permanent requirement. I plan on building a preamp with balanced outputs, and using it to do unbalanced to balanced conversion. The jumpers are really only a stopgap measure until the preamp is finished.
I still like Nelson's design choice the best. He states in one of the manuals that he ships them with the shorting jumpers in place. My guess is that he chose this method because it guarantees that the amp will work out of the box regardless of balanced or unbalanced connections. Having dealt with customers, I believe that when presented with a choice, the customer will always always make the wrong choice. With Nelson's design, the customer won't ever have the opportunity to plug in a balanced source into an amp that has the (-) pin shorted. In order to connect the XLR source physically, the shorting jumper has to be removed. Yes, it does mean that they can incorrectly choose to short the (+) input to the (-) input, which i assume means that nothing gets sent to the speakers except for possibly the differential offset * the amp gain.
Bryan
(whose rear-panel switch is permanently set to "unbalanced")
The idea that I can use the diff nature of the amp to cancel out the noise introduced by the wire is an interesting one. If I were going to run unbalanced permanently, I'd probably do this.
The tutorial on bending a piece of Romex with a pair of needlenose pliers is stellar, but I confess that I got far more benefit from the posted source for small fasteners.
Grey's switch idea is a good one, and it's the one I'd have chosen if selectable Balanced/Unbalanced were a permanent requirement. I plan on building a preamp with balanced outputs, and using it to do unbalanced to balanced conversion. The jumpers are really only a stopgap measure until the preamp is finished.
I still like Nelson's design choice the best. He states in one of the manuals that he ships them with the shorting jumpers in place. My guess is that he chose this method because it guarantees that the amp will work out of the box regardless of balanced or unbalanced connections. Having dealt with customers, I believe that when presented with a choice, the customer will always always make the wrong choice. With Nelson's design, the customer won't ever have the opportunity to plug in a balanced source into an amp that has the (-) pin shorted. In order to connect the XLR source physically, the shorting jumper has to be removed. Yes, it does mean that they can incorrectly choose to short the (+) input to the (-) input, which i assume means that nothing gets sent to the speakers except for possibly the differential offset * the amp gain.
Bryan
(whose rear-panel switch is permanently set to "unbalanced")
Banned
Joined 2002
batee said:
not at all... not one came out and said it, but i will: "no, there is probably not a US supplier for these jumpers. they were probably just made in small quantities and i would be VERY surprised if there was an actual source for them".
this is why we were offering other suggestions.
and just guessing, but if you are uncomfortable about the looks of a DIY jumper, you probably wouldnt like the look of a DIY switch installed on the back of your amp either.
i had the same problem you did, having balanced and unbalanced gear temporarily. i just bought the XLR>RCA adapters. it worked just fine.
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