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I got a good price on an 8 pack of 1/4 x XLR cables but I only needed a couple. So one day when I was trouble shooting some 1/4 inch cables or I forgot one or something.. I grabbed a 1/4 inch x XLR cable and plugged the 1/4 inch jacks into the outs of my PA500 and the XLR into the "mic" input of my Yamaha 2000 powered mixer. I have the option to plug a 1/4 inch line level jack into the 1/4 inch jack or the XLR. So WOW ... I had to turn the gain down on the channels using XLR and I had my Master Volume fader on my keyboard way down low and I was getting really a hot signal.
So what's up with that? Next I did the same thing at home because I have 8 channels on the front of my Aardvark Q-10 and I think they're called Neutrick if they accomadate either 1/4 or XLR jacks. In any case that's what they are and again I have a hot signal and low noise.
(THIS IS A HUGE BESIDE THE POINT... but... when everything is shut down and I'm just listening to some videos or something... the noisiest channel on the whole mixer is the cold PA500. I mean everything is off, but the silent PA500 has the bigggest hiss and hum from the dead cables. I don't know why. That's my biggest gripe and its a non gripe.. I just thought I would mention that.)

Ok thanks if anybody has a comment about the XLR thing.
thanks
paul

1) You did not mention are your 1/4"->XLR cables TS (tip-sleeve) or TRS (tip-ring-sleeve) type at 1/4" end? From your experience I think they are TS that means unbalanced cables.

2) What happened to you was that you gave line level signal from your Pa500 to Mic level input in your mixer. This makes your sound so loud and you need reduce gain almost to minimal. Many mixers expect mic level signal from XLR inputs and line level signal from 1/4" inputs.

3) AFAIK PA500 itself has unbalanced output (that your signal has onlu two wires - hot and ground while balanced signal has two wires for signal + ground). Unbalanced signal means that you are connecting both gears (Pa500 and Mixer) grounds with your signal wire and this can cause ground loop - what you are hearing as hum and hiss even with switched off Pa500. You may want to remove power cable (and other cables that go to grounded devices like computers etc) from Pa500 leaving only sound cable and see if hum is gone. If yes, it is ground loop. Slight hiss from switched off devices can be caused just by sensitive input that catches radio frequencies etc from cold wire that acts like aerial.

If you want good sound (and perhaps over longer (3m and more wires) signal path) then you need thing called DI box, that converts unbalanced Pa500 output to balanced signal that can be carried over balanced line to your mixer. DI box usually has also "ground lift" function that separates grounds of instrument and mixer and eliminates thus ground loop hum.

Your signal (for both stereo channels if wanted) should go like:

Pa500 1/4" TS ->short cable -> 1/4" TS DIbox -> DIbox XLR -> long cable -> XLR to mixer

Thanks for the comprehensive reply. Wow there is a lot to know. I did forget to mention they ARE TIP/SLEEVE. No ring. I really like them a lot better now that I found this result. I will check out the DI box.
I have been doing these gigs a long time thinking that my sound needs to really get overhauled.

Thanks very much

Hi Paul,

Here's some good advice re. your topic here. You may have already read it.
http://www.korgforums.com/forum/phpBB2/ ... hp?t=72787