Balanced Line Cable Length

Two signals wires plus a separate ground wire.

Balanced line cable length.

The cable construction used for balanced telephone cables was twisted pair. Both legs carry the same signal but in opposite polarity to each other. Any noise picked up along the cable run will typically be common to both legs. That said when the cord length is under 10 feet unbalanced cables actually have a stronger signal than balanced cables.

However this did not become widespread until repeater amplifiers became available. Audio2000 s c26006p2 microphone cable 2 pack copper shield balanced cable 1 4 trs right angle to trs connector 6 feet length gold platted connector flexible ultra soft rubber jacket 4 7 out of 5 stars 134. As a general rule this effect is only noticeable with cables beyond 20 feet in length. High levels speaker cable are rarely balanced.

A balanced cable by contrast has three conductors in the connector and three wires in the cable. 4 that said you would be nuts to try to run unbalanced for more than 25 feet or 50 at the most. Very low levels mic phono are much more susceptible to interference than line levels. As in the unbalanced cable the ground wire still surrounds the signal wires and is used as a shield against interference.

With balanced cables you don t get the same distortions so they can be much longer without any detriment to your sound quality. Open wires on the other hand with their lower capacitance had been used for. A ground a positive leg and a negative leg. For an unamplified telephone line a twisted pair cable could only manage a maximum distance of 30 km.