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.