If the component with XLRs is IEC-compliant use pin 2 for all signal wires and send two ground wires each to pins 1/3.
RCA to XLR interconnect wiring diagram
Building my own interconnects and looking for a wiring diagram to go from male RCA to male XLR. I am using non-shielded cable. The wire is Homegrown Audio's SC-8 silver braid which uses 8 strands of silver wire. 4 signal and 4 ground when used for RCA to RCA termination. Thanks, Brian
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Depends whether you're using transformer based gear or not. W/tranny based gear, use a tiny piece of wire across pins 1 & 3 and run that to the shell of the RCA. Pin 2 will go to the center tip of the RCA. With non-tranny gear, pin 1 to the shell and pin 2 goes to the center tip of the RCA. Leave pin 3 open. This held true on my gear using a fully balanced amp & CDP w/single ended passive. The cable with pin 3 open goes from XLR female out of CDP into RCA at pre. The cable w/wire across pins 1& 3 goes from RCA out of pre into male XLR at amp. I originally made the cable from the CDP w/wire soldered across pins 1 & 3 but got a hum through the spkrs, so removed it & the hum went away. Both cables are non-shielded. Additional information courtesy of Jon Risch here |
Caution against running the ground to pin 3. This shorts the negative pins of the right and left channels, which were never meant to be shorted together! If you're lucky, this will only cause mild distortion... Instead, run a resistor between pins 1 and 3. The value depends on the citcuit. Try 10K for transistor amps or 100K for tubes. |
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