Best component for speaker clarity?

Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2009
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11,175
Interesting. So they do have unbalanced input. I did think it odd that they didn't have unbalanced (looking at the inputs, which are labelled as balanced), when many other brands have both.

I have to apologise to the OP, if he's gone and bought an interface; insisting it was necessary, when it may not be. Would have been better to look at the manual, rather than go on what is displayed on the rear of the speakers.

Although an interface may not be needed, not sure I'd want to use £200 speakers with just onboard audio. He could always return the interface (assuming he has ordered), and get a DAC instead if he feels the cost of the Scarlett 2i2 is too much along with the cost of the speakers.
 

Kei

Kei

Soldato
Joined
24 Oct 2008
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2,750
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South Wales
Technically, it's not an unbalanced input. Putting an unbalanced signal into a balanced input does work insofar as you get sound back out but it's signal level is going to be a fair bit lower than it should be requiring more gain. (unbal is -10dB whereas bal is +4dB) The back of that JBL monitor has a +4dB -10dB selector switch allowing the input level to be selected prior to the gain adjustment knob, so unbalanced will work ok. You'd just need the appropriate cables to get it to work so that pins 1 + 3 (Cold and shield) are tied together and pin 2 (Hot) is the +.
 
Associate
OP
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11 Dec 2014
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1,093
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Oxford
Well I did buy the 2i2, and I've finally set everything up. I'm not getting any sound though. Windows recognises the 2i2 and the playback device is set to it. The LEDs on both the speakers and the 2i2 are on, so I'm not sure what's going on. I manually downloaded the latest drivers from the Scarlett 2i2 site but that didn't fix the issue.

Any ideas why I'm not getting any sound? I'm using balanced TRS cables.

EDIT: Also getting a strange issue where many youtube videos keep showing an 'error occurred'. This wasn't happening before.
 
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OP
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11 Dec 2014
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1,093
Location
Oxford
OK problem solved. Drivers needed to be uninstalled and reinstalled.

So what's this about not needing an audio interface? I'm happy to keep it if improves my sound quality vs onboard audio. Otherwise it did set me back £120.
 
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