Quote Originally Posted by blackraven View Post
I saw that cable but read this review on it-

As always Monoprice has the best products that your money can buy.
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Rating: (8 out of 10) Reviewer: John Jamieson from Sault Ste Marie, MI
8/21/2012 9:34:50 AM
Good ONLY for balanced to unbalanced
Pros: Great cable for connecting a balanced output to an unbalanced input

Cons: Do NOT mistake this cable as being the proper way to connect an unbalanced output to a balanced input (e.g. a consumer CD player to a audio mixing board).

I love monoprice cables in general, and this cable is good. At the time of this review, the writeup is incorrect when stating that this should be used to connect an unbalanced output with a balanced input.

To connect an unbalanced output to a balanced input, a two conductor (+ shield) cable is needed.
On the unbalanced end, the red conductor should connect to the tip, the black to the ring (the shield should not be connected).
The XLR connector should be wired with the shield connecting to pin 1, the red to pin 2, the black to pin 3.
You now would have 30-80db of noise rejection.

For more reading:

This Rane document has the best chart on proper wireing.
Sound System Interconnection

This is a more technical document that tells us why.
AV: Connecting Unbalanced Outputs To Balanced Inputs?And Vice-Versa - Pro Sound Web

All the adapters that I am looking at have the correct pin connections, this cable does not
Indeed, I'm familiar with the Rane document and I would would follow that advice.

I'm a little confused by the review however. The cable I pictured would be to the one to go from the BAT to your subwoofer, i.e. balanced to unbalanced, i.e. female XLR to male RCA. I really don't know whether the Monoprice cable is correctly wired in accordance with Rane, but the reviewer does say, "Great cable for connecting a balanced output to an unbalanced input".

Rane shows two balanced to unbalanced: one for one wire + shield (#4) and another for two wire + shield (#6). A few years ago I fabricated a pair of balanced to unbalanced per #6 and an unbalanced to balanced per #17.