Help with PA/Mixer connections

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Nate Konig

Freshman
Mar 13, 2012
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I'm looking into a small PA and before I buy what I want to buy, I want to make sure I can get the most for my money. The set up I'm looking into is a soundcraft 124fx mixer and 2 Kustom PW50s.

In order to connect the mixer to the speakers I was thinking I could make my own cables. The main mix out on the board is a 1/4" TRS (which i'm pretty sure is just stereo?), and the input on the speaker is for a male xlr. My debate is weather to use standard mic cable in the wiring, or if quad mic cable would work. The quad cable is supposed to help with noise rejection, but will it work for this instance?

Another question that I cannot find the answer to comes from wanting to run a keyboard or guitars through the board. Since I plan on using all 4 mic/line ins for mics, I am forced to move for the stereo inputs for the rest. If I want to plug in a keyboard, acoustic guitar, or headphone out of a small guitar amp into the board should I use a DI box? If I use a balanced cable without a DI box will a ground loop still occur, since it has a ground wire? Also, should I use just one mono 1/4" into the left stereo port, or convert to 2 separate 3 pole (TRS?) plugs and plug into both stereo channels for guitar and keyboard?
 
Re: Help with PA/Mixer connections

Hi Nate,

Getting the most for one's money is pretty universal. Question is, what is more important to you?
Best sounding speaker per dollar, or lightest speaker per dollar? Cheapest today or best warranty?
And many more considerations.

The little Soundcraft board might work fine for you, though it sounds like you are already loading it up with no room for expansion.

I have never heard the Kustom PW50 speakers, but they look like they aren't going to sound very good or last very long.
Consider getting one, good speaker.
Jeff Babcock has a Mackie SRM450 in the Marketplace. One of these would probably be better than ten of the little Kustom boxes.

On the 124FX the TRS main outs are NOT stereo, they are balanced line-level out.

Yes, with basic cable building skills and good materials, you will be fine making your own cables.
If you already have some quad core cable lying around, sure, use it.
If buying, I would just buy a good-quality two-conductor cable.

Running 1/4" cables directly in to mixer line inputs is done fairly often. Sometimes it works well, sometimes not, depending on the specific equipment being used.
With some inputs you will have an impedance and/or level mis-match.
Going through a DI you may knock your signal level down so much that you don't have enough to really drive the mixer's line-level inputs.

For now, for simplicity, I would go mono from Guitar and Keys to the mixer. this assumes the Keyboard has a Mono out.

Good health, Weogo
 
Re: Help with PA/Mixer connections

Can’t seem to find a Kustom PW50… not even sure why it got me curious.

I’m assuming it’s a powered speaker…
 
Re: Help with PA/Mixer connections

Using premium quad mic cable will not likely be significant to the sound quality you get using entry level gear, while better is always better.

Making your own cables could save some cash if you have more time than money, but if your soldering skills are unproved you could be introducing a variable in troubleshooting set up issues that you don't need. Perhaps a mix of good commercial cables too, so you can confirm problems are not cable related, while very cheap manufactured cables are not without their own issues.

As already mentioned a 1/4" TRS output is probably mono balanced, with the possible exception of a headphone jack that will be stereo. Some mixers provide stereo feeds on 1/8" TRS, but these aren't that widely used in SR.

JR
 
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