Connection from Aux out to Stereo heaphone amp

[tallen55]

Trying to connect to stereo headphone amp with the 5/6, 7/8, 9/10 aux out. So dual female XLR from QU-16 mixer to 1/4” stereo jack on Sterling Audio headphone amp.

I’m using an XLR Y connector, dual female to single male, and a female XLR to TRS. When connected, pin 1 of both XLR goes to sleeve of TRS. Pin 2 goes to ring, and pin 3 goes to tip.

When connected, signal to headphones is clear until I pan a channel, the siglal gets distorted and it does not pan in the headphones.

What is correct wiring needed from each XLR to TRS?

[tallen55]

Image of the cables I’m using.

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[Mike C]

You don’t have the correct cables!!! Your Y cable is shorting the left
and right mix outputs together.
I just looked up Sterling headphone amps and on the ones I found they all show
a dedicated left and right input.

You simply need an XLR female to a 1/4 inch TRS male cable, on for each channel.

[tallen55]

Well its the Sterling audio 8 channel headphone amp. Model S418HA. There is a dedicated L and R in. There is also individual TRS inputs for each channel so you can send a different monitor mix to each channel. So I still need a Y-cable to get from 2 XLR TO 1 TRS.

[Mike C]

Ok if your using it that way you need to make or get an XLR to 1/4 TRS insert cable with
both XLRs being female.

Attached is diagram I found showing the wiring diagram.

Let me know if that makes sense.

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[Dick Rees]

The above diagram is clearly labeled as an OUTPUT/SPLITTER cable. Read this:

https://www.rane.com/note109.html

[Mike C]

That wiring diagram will work for what he needs with his headphone amp’s TRS
stereo inputs.

Yea it’s not an insert cable diagram but is the same thing except different gender
XLR’s, for insert cable use one XLR would be male and the other female for use coming from a board with 1/4 TRS insert jacks to a unit with XLR inputs & outputs.
For my Allen Heath GL boards that meant the 1/4 TRS tip was wired to the male XLR and the
ring wired to the female XLR

I’ve made many 1/4 TRS to XLR insert cables.

If “Tallen55” would like I could set you with some cables.

[Dick Rees]

You CAN do it. Should you do it?

The cable is unbalanced on both legs and can function as an insert cable, but if you read the white paper I linked above you’ll get a good idea of why this is not a good idea.

[Mike C]

That cable will work perfect in taking the stereo mix outputs into his TRS unbalanced stereo input on the headphone amp he has.

[Mike C]

He does not need to combine or split anything, just taking the stereo outputs to an unbalanced stereo input.
Maybe… pin 3 on the XLR could remain disconnected/floating, generally not.
The Allen Heath GL manual shows tying pin 3 to pin 1 to unbalance an XLR output, I just looked.

[MarkPAman]

The wiring in Mike’s diagram is sort of right, except of course that as it is doing a different job, it needs to be other way around if you see what I mean. The XLRs will both need to be female, which for the diagram, means pins 1 & 2 will be in different places.

So Both XLR – pin 1 to the Screen of the jack
Left XLR —- pin 2 to Tip of the jack
Right XLR —-pin 2 to Ring of the jack

In both XLRs, Pin 3 could be connected to Pin 1, though I’m not sure if that matters in this case.

[tallen55]

Thanks for all the input on this. I’ll rewire my Y cable as suggested:
So Both XLR – pin 1 to the Screen of the jack
Left XLR —- pin 2 to Tip of the jack
Right XLR —-pin 2 to Ring of the jack

In both XLRs, Pin 3 could be connected to Pin 1, though I’m not sure if that matters in this case.

[Mike C]

Let us know how it works out.

Post up a picture of what you build up.

[skippy]

Given that these female XLR are connected to OUTPUTS of mixer, better to let Pin 3 float. Grounding has no effect on the 1/4″ TRS since not connected to anything there. However, grounding Pin3 would be shorting an output of the mixer to ground. If you are making your own cable, you might as well let that float.

Personally I am poking around on this forum to find out if its okay to short one side of a balanced output of the mixer. If you can avoid it, then avoid it (as I recommend above). In my case, Matrix outputs on my QU-SB are balanced and I would like to plug in a pair of unbalanced 1/4″ TS there. The sleeve of TS will short the ring output of jack to ground. Is the circuit designed to handle that? Who knows the answer to this?

[skippy]

Looks like I found my answer here … https://community.allen-heath.com/forums/topic/qu-mixer-mix-out-to-sampler
So, it seems fine to short outputs pin 3 to pin 1, and seemingly recommended when connecting to unbalanced input of other equipment. Similarly would be okay to use unbalanced 1/4″ from Matrix output of QU-SB as it would short together Ring and Sleeve.

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