Audio Out for Eumig 824 Sonomatic

[Ethan Knightchilde]

Related question. The stereo inputs on the mixer are left and right. Balanced per the spec sheet. All the 1/4” stereo breakouts (female to male) I’ve seen are TRS female to TS male. Is the solution for that to get a breakout that is 1/4” TRS female to two male RCA style plugs (though the female RCA to make 1/4” adapter that would go between those and the mixer are TS as well)?

[Steve Klare]

My experience with these has been chains of adapters are a real headache! For example, my mixer output to my amp (30 cable feet away) looks like this:

Two 1/4" TS to 1/8" TS adapters plug into the mixer right, left outputs, then a double 1/8" TS to single TRS 1/8" stereo female adapter (a "Y") for my 1/8" TRS male cable to plug in and run 30 feet to the back of the house. (Let's not even talk about what it's plugging into back there right now!)

Now: this is 3 sets of contacts in succession and the 1/8" inline ones are a little...tentative!

So help me, if I even think about this connection too much I lose a channel or sometimes both! Sometime soon I want to simplify this to two 1/4" TS plugs hardwired to a robust 1/8" TRS jack mounted in a plastic box.

Sometimes you need to just give up and build exactly what's needed, as simple as possible.

[Ethan Knightchilde]

So there really is no way around going from a 1/4” TRS to a left and right 1/4” TS breakout and it is what it is?

[Steve Klare]

Is this what you mean?

1/4” TRS to a left and right 1/4” TS

-or what you want to avoid?

[Ethan Knightchilde]

Is this what you mean?

1/4” TRS to a left and right 1/4” TS

-or what you want to avoid?

Basically yes. It would be a female TRS breaking out to two male for mixer input. But if the mixer is expecting a balanced input, what’s the solution if it wants left and right 1/4”?

[Steve Klare]

This is where the mixer itself decides. Mine is designed to accept either TRS or TS plugs and have the inputs be balanced/unbalanced based on that choice.

Is this mixer new to you? If not, what's worked there before?

My gut is telling me if your mixer inputs are dedicated as balanced only, a TS will work. (My gut is good...not infallible!)

It would be interesting to build a kludge from parts drawer stuff and see what happens.

[Ethan Knightchilde]

I ordered the DIN cable, 1/4" plugs, and a female 1/4 TRS to L/R male 1/4 TS breakout cable. I'll let you know how it all goes.
Incidentally, I believe my ST-1200HD generates a bit of amplifier hum. Output from the yellow monitor jack creates an unbearable noise but the green monitor jacks aren't nearly as bad.

[Ethan Knightchilde]

The DIN cable and 1/4” jacks have arrived. Anything I should keep in mind before I cut the cable?

[Steve Klare]

Make it quick! (It hurts less that way!)

-but seriously: make sure you end up with at least one cable that is as long as you need it to be, even in the case it means sacrificing the other connector.

You'll need to strip the wires and use your ohmmeter to trace out Pins 2 and 3.

I'm surprised your Elmo is Hummy: usually these are pretty good along these lines.

[Ethan Knightchilde]

I’m sure I’ll be posting questions once I start.

[Steve Klare]

Best of Luck!

I can testify that making something like this work well feels really good!

[Ethan Knightchilde]

I'm with Ken here: soldering into a 5 pin DIN can get difficult. I think the easy way would be to buy a 5 pin DIN to 5 pin DIN cable twice as long as you want and cut in in half (-lengthwise!). This cable will have every pin wired, so you should use your new Ohmmeter Skills to find the bare wires to pins 3 and 2.

Soldering onto a 1/4" phono plug is much easier. (-just don't forget to slide the cover over the cable first!)

The question then is what is your mixer expecting (-and YOU thought you were done with all this!😉)

If the mixer is expecting a balanced signal, solder the wire for pin 3 to the tip terminal and the wire for pin 2 to the ring terminal.

If the mixer is expecting an unbalanced signal, solder the wire for pin 3 to the tip terminal and the wire for pin 2 to the sleeve terminal.

(Given the grounding situation with the average Eumig projector, "balanced" is the way to go.)

Oh! -and when you are done, coil up the unused cable-half and throw it in the drawer (You never know...)

So… how do I know which is the ring vs tip terminals?

[Steve Klare]

Ahhh!!!

Once again: you have learned the ohmmeter, and they are just great for things like this!

So you set your meter for 200 Ohms, place one probe on the tip of the plug, and fish around on the terminals on the other end until you see a very low reading. Now you've established the tip's terminal.

Then you repeat for "ring" and "sleeve" as you need to.

An ohmmeter is a great tool, because you can learn about what's going on inside a device or circuit without applying power and potentially blowing the thing up!

[Dave Bickford]

Here you go.

[Ethan Knightchilde]

Thanks all. Well, rookie mistake. I made the wrong assumption that any 5 pin cable would fit the Eumig. The sleeve on the connector of the one I purchased is too thick and too close to the contact area to mate.

Time or order a new cable and check the connection before I cut it!