I have Rocket RS1000's.

Currently I have a 990 connected to a 7700 via balanced connections. That means on the 990 the unbalanced channels are not used. For the powered woofer on the speaker, I want to connect to the 990 via the unbalanced connection.

Seems that if you have a balanced connector being used, that on the 990, it shuts off the unbalanced connections. Is this correct, cause the woofer is producing no sound at all. BOoooooo

I have a 990 pre/pro and a 7500 Amp. I use the balanced outputs for the five main speakers and at the same time, I use the unbalanced output that goes directly to my powered sub. Works for me.

I have not seen the schematics for the 990. Normally a balanced output with the unbalanced option take the + driver to the unbalanced RCA.

While you can connect both balanced and unbalanced under this scenario, you negate some of the benefits of balanced audio, causing a mismatch between the + and - legs of the balanced connection. This will reduce ur Common Mode Rejection or imunity to noise which is the entire reason for balanced connectors in the first place.

Thanks,

Eric

I use the same setup as buckeye and it works fine. I think ewiler is referring to when you use both balanced and unbalanced to the same amp channel and would be the case if you are running both balanced and unbalanced to the sub.

There is always debate between the use of balanced or unbalanced and the benefits when the runs are short. Would the switch at each channel on the back of the 7500/7700 allow a direct comparison between the two types of cables? Or won't the test work because of the connection of both types of cables at the 990 dictates performance as ewiler has said? If the test were valid you would need to take into account the 6dB gain when using balanced connections.

Jester I have RS1Ks too. You should definitely be able to use both balanced and unbalanced at the same time. Sounds to me like you have your Bass Management misconfigured. If you are using the sub output to the RS1K woofers you will have to set the fronts to “Small”. The good news is if you plan on using R-DES the new version is supposed to have balanced inputs so you will be able to go balanced all around.

May I suggest an alternative setup? I’m actually planning on sending a full-range (large) signal to the RS1K woofer by sending the balanced left and right stereo channels to R-DES and then on to the 1K woofers. The unbalanced signals would go to my main amp. This all assumes you have a sub for LFE in addition to the 1K woofers. The only downside to this setup is the 4 smaller woofers also get a full range signal, but there are other ways to work around this.

Humm... Now that I re-read jester's post I'm thinking he may be already wanting to connect the stereo (L&R) signals to the powered woofers that I suggested as an alternative. I had assumed you could use the balanced and the unbalanced on a single channel but the figure on page 17 of the manual has a note saying not to. I'm actually splitting the unbalanced signal but was hoping to use both the balanced and unbalanced L&R outputs later. I wonder if the note is there because as Eric pointed out you would "undo” the balanced noise rejection or if it is there for another reason?

Jester - Have you made any headway on this issue?

No I have not because no one seems to understand that I want to use the balanced and unbalanced signals of the SAME channel, which apparently does not work on the 990. You either use one or the other, but not both as it is not mechanically possible.

I'm not quite following what you are trying to do.

Which channels are you trying to use both types of connectors and why?

Shouldn't you be using the sub channel for your powered woofer?

Rocket 1000's have an array of speakers in the cabinet that are fed by the high level signal that comes from the main amp in your home theater. There is also a powered woofer (has amp) in the speaker cabinet that can be fed a low level signal strait from the pre/pro.

Nevermind, if it doesn't do it, it doesn't do it. Obi, your right on with what I need to do, and I'm doing it to eliminate hum from the woofer. I've tried a cheater, and other methods with slight success, but this was touted as the best route to eliminante the hum. I did not want to split the unbalanced connection and did not see a need to if it could be set up the way I wanted to.

Wouldn't the powered woofer normally be fed low level signal from the subwoofer out on the pre-pro?

No, I have a EP600 for that. The powered woofer would play the L (or R) signal in the 35hz-240hz range (making a guess at the high end cut).

Nope. Jester like me wants to run just the stereo bass to the L&R woofer not the LFE and redirected bass.

Jester - This is disapointing news as I was hoping to use this exact set up. When you say not mechanically possible, do you mean you can't physically fit the two connectors at the same time or something else? Sorry if I'm being dense here.

Ahh, I understand.

So basically, in order to do what you want to do with that amplifier, you have to use unbalanced connections for the fronts and split the output from the pre-pro using some sort of Y splitter?

Whereas in your perfect world, you'd like to be able to use the balanced connection to connect the pre-pro to the amp and the unbalanced to connect from the pre-pro to the speaker's amp?

And since the pre-pro will only send signal to balanced or unbalanced and not both at once, you can't do what you want?

I think I understand now. Thanks.

If the Balanced is plugged in, there is no signal from the unbalanced connection in the back of the 990. I'd love to be doing something wrong, but this is not hard, so I cannot imagine any other answer than there is some sort of shut off on the unbalanced if balanced is used.

Again, boooo...

And yes Blog, now your on the same page.!

Gotcha that is what I originally thought but the "mechanically possible" threw me for a loop. So as soon as you pull the balanced connector the unbalanced starts back up I take it. Guess I'll stick to my Y connector on unbalanced.

Ground loops can be tricky to track down. Have you pulled your cable or sat coax feed just to see if the humm goes away?

What are your your bass management settings, Jester? Also, do the unbalanced sub outputs go silent if the balanced sub output is active?

Oh, Ive done all I can to kill the humm.

My bass managment should not effect the turning on and off of a connection, no way. But to answer your question, Small all round, fronts cut at 40Hz, subwoofer yes. Again, I'm not looking to send the subwoofer out to my speakers...

Okay guys, no warranty expressed/implied/etc, but it should be fairly trivial to build a split cable off the balanced source. A cable with one head (XLR) and two tails (one XLR, one RCA).

gonk - I believe jester is using the left and right channels not the sub channel. Valid question though anyone using the balanced and unbalanced sub outputs at the same time?

jester have you disconnected everything from the 990 except the two unbalanced lines going to the RS1K amps? If so does it still hum? It took me a while to get all the hum out of my system but it is now hum free.

obie, I was wondering how he had the bass management set when using the l/r outputs - wouldn't want to be starving them with the crossover. I was also wondering if he could set the mains small, run the balanced sub out to the main sub (which has balanced in), and run the two unbalanced sub outs to the RS1K's.

I've used the sub channel (mains small) to power the built-in woofs but it doesn't work so well. As MLS has often said the RS1K powered woofer is not a subwoofer. I want to keep the LFE stuff out of those woofers. I'm guessing from what jester has said even if you could hook up all three sub outputs the two unbalanced sub outs would go dead as soon as you hooked up the balanced sub. Would be nice to know for sure though.

What would be really cool is if the three sub outputs could be independently assignable. My problem is I want Lexicon/Meridian/Tact functions at Outlaw prices.