Combo Jacks

[BobAParticipant]

I can understand why, on the consoles themselves, they don’t have combo jacks: they have both 1/4 and XLR jacks for each channel. I don’t particularly agree with their decision because it would have been much simpler and cleaner if even on their consoles they had combo jacks. However, on the AR & AB extenders they only have XLR jacks. This design decision makes no sense to me. These are on-stage, or near-stage boxes. You would think that plugging instruments directly into the extender would be obvious, but no, you have to run the instrument into a DI box and then into the extender. That’s 3 points of potential failure as opposed to one, plus all the extra gear and cables you have to carry. Please, if you ever do release updated versions of the extenders, either include combo jacks, or at the very least have both jack types available.

Thank you.

[BRSParticipant]

+1 for this.

[[XAP]BobParticipant]

Need high impedance capability as well…
And the boxes are designed for GLD spec as well.

Personally I don’t find the addition of a DI to be particularly onerous. Most musicians have their own jack cable, so I just get to give them a jack point at their location.

[GCumbeeParticipant]

Not to be a downer but I’ll stick with good transformer direct boxes. Been doing that for 40+ years. I’m not a big fan of combo jacks. I’d rather be able to ground lift if needed.

[Dick ReesParticipant]

Others have politely hinted at the answer when citing the desirability of using a PROPER device with both ground lift and impedance matching capabilities unavailable with a combo jack as well as being able to place the input device as close as possible to the signal source and run a balanced signal to the snake, stage box or console.

While such a feature might fill your (limited) needs, DIRECT BOXES are the correct tools for the job.

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