What should the wiring be like when connecting an Alpha-Link to unbalanced analogue equipment?
What should the wiring be like when connecting an Alpha-Link to unbalanced analogue equipment?
If you are wiring an Alpha-Link output (which is impedance balanced) to the unbalanced input of another device:
Alpha-Link pin 2 (hot) goes to tip/hot of unbalanced connector
Alpha-Link pin 1 (ground) goes to ground of unbalanced connector
Alpha-Link pin 3 (cold) can be tied to ground locally or left unconnected. This will not matter as there is no signal on this pin, just a resistive
termination.
If you are wiring the unbalanced output of a device to an Alpha-Link input (which is balanced):
The unbalanced output signal goes to pin 2 (hot) of the Alpha-Link input
The ground of unbalanced output goes to pin 3 (cold) of the Alpha-Link input
The ground of unbalanced output goes to pin 1 (ground) of the Alpha-Link input
Please note: The Alpha-Link manual includes a table that shows the 25 pin sub-D pinout and its correspondence with XLR pins 1, 2 and 3.