Think a balanced cable has the same weight at each end? Have a look at our guide to balanced and unbalanced cabling.

XLR

Any member who wants to sound engineer will get to know all about XLRs very quickly. Robust, cheap, fairly quick to repair, lockable, directional and most importantly; balanced, they are the industry standard.

• Used for carrying microphone level and line level signals, XLRs carry a signal into the female end and out the male connectors.
  Note that the male and female connectors relate to the metal contacts, not the plastic surrounds and that the directionality is opposite to that found in such things like power cables. In the picture above, the female XLR is on the left.
• The three pins on an XLR mean that the cable will be able to cary balanced signals. By connecting compatable equipment together with XLRs the amount of interference will be reduced, ensuring better sound quality.
• When connecting microphones up, ensure that the cable is properly locked in place (it should click) and that the excess cable is coiled at the microphone end rather than the multi-core or desk end to allow easy movement of the microphone.
• Try and run all XLRs away from more powerful cables such as power and speaker cables as this will reduce the noise generated in the cable. If it is completely nessesary to have an XLR crossing a more powerful cable, try to ensure that the two cross at right angles to each other.
• Be sensible, don't use the longest cable for the shortest distance!

1/4 inch Jack

A stereo jack can be used not just for unbalanced stereo signals or balanced mono signals but as an insert. This is a method of connection where one part of the jack is a ground, the second carries a mono signal from desk to signal processor and the third returns the altered signal back to the desk. This allows the alteration of the sound to be performed by the use of a single connection, reducing the time and complexity usually required with two cables which can get mixed up. In a mixing desk, the insert affects the signal after the gain control and before the eq controls.

Phono

Phono (or RCA) plugs can be found connecting almost every hifi together. Simple and cheap, they work very well in such environments but aren't used for professional audio. There are several problems with phono connections: they don't lock into place, they break more easily than XLRs and they are unbalanced which makes them unsuitable for the long cable runs which we use. They are also identical at each end which makes it difficult to tell what cable is being used for what purpose and are only used by Backstage on hifi equipment such as CD and MD players.

Speakon

Invented by Neutrik, this connector is designed to carry speaker level signals from the amplifier to a speaker. The plug fits into its socket and is turned to lock them together. The most common mistake with Speakon is that it is not turned during plugging in and so the connection is not made but as long as the connections are locked, a Speakon is extremely robust and reliable, producing a safe and effective speaker cable.