how to connect monitors?

jcr · 21 Sep 2021 at 07:25

for give my ignorance. just bought a pair of Adam t5v monitors.

i have no idea how to connect the speakers to each other, or to the Asus zonar stx sound card on my pc.
all that was in the box was the power cord.

i have a couple of XLR male cables, but again dont know their purpose?

could use some advice, thank you.

Yaayuh! · 21 Sep 2021 at 07:46

Connect them using the unbalanced RCA to your Asus Xonar STX. You’ll need two single leads.

Or you can look at getting a balanced pre amp (or unbalanced, doesn’t really make a difference in a small home setup), that way you can control the volume better.

jcr · 21 Sep 2021 at 10:45

thank you

JasonM · 24 Sep 2021 at 00:44

I'm using an Asus STX II connected to studio monitors with RCA cables.

Be careful what cables you use as some RCA cables can have noise issues.

I'm using Van Damme Silver cables that are mesh shielded, the following video shows the noise issue compared to a cheap Maplin RCA cable.

The gain on the monitor is +6 above where I normally have it, as I'm trying to highlight the noise issue. Watch the video and you will hear the noise increase when the Maplins cable is switched in, I expect all of the cheap / budget RCA cables will be like this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaQRFtBXu1w

And this is a photo of the two actual cables in above test. You can see the mesh shielding on the Van Damme cable.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/p...JEGyYE3o4tvkHwyDz1z9ZzYTJ0TSSvda=w799-h599-no

jcr · 24 Sep 2021 at 05:42

JasonM said:
Be careful what cables you use as some RCA cables can have noise issues.

I'm using Van Damme Silver cables that are mesh shielded, the following video shows the noise issue compared to a cheap Maplin RCA cable.

thank you, this is good to know.

Yaayuh! · 24 Sep 2021 at 07:38

jcr said:
thank you, this is good to know.

Honestly, take it with a pinch of salt. Just maybe don’t buy Amazon/Chinese cheapo cables and you’ll be grand.

Standard Van Damme will more than suffice.

https://www.designacable.com/studio...rca-to-rca-lead-flexible-van-damme-cable.html

JasonM · 24 Sep 2021 at 07:59

Yaayuh! said:
Standard Van Damme will more than suffice.

https://www.designacable.com/studio...rca-to-rca-lead-flexible-van-damme-cable.html

Those cheaper Van Damme cables are still far better than the cheap RCA's. There made from XKE cable that's aimed at live stage performance. In contrast the Silver Lo-Cap 55 is aimed at recording where a studio is trying to obtain best possible recording.

I own both the above cables, and can confirm the Van Damme Silver Lo-Cap 55's are a better cable then the XKE cables. I was that pleased with the Lo-Cap 55's I also changed all RCA's with these on my stack system. The Lo-Cap 55's have a capacitance of 55 pF/m, where as the XKE 90 pF/m. Basically the lower the capacitance of a cable the less high frequency roll off will occur. This is exactly what I hear, being the Silver Lo-Cap 55's are less restrictive to detail compared to the XKE cables.

Yaayuh! · 24 Sep 2021 at 08:24

JasonM said:
Those cheaper Van Damme cables are still far better than the cheap RCA's. There made from XKE cable that's aimed at live stage performance. In contrast the Silver Lo-Cap 55 is aimed at recording studio where a studio is trying to obtain best possible recording.

I own both the above cables, and can confirm the Van Damme Silver Lo-Cap 55's are a better cable then the XKE cables. I was that pleased with the Lo-Cap 55's I also changed all RCA's with these on my stack system. The Lo-Cap 55's have a capacitance of 55 pF/m, where as the XKE 90 pF/m. Basically the lower the capacitance of a cable the less high frequency roll off will occur. This is exactly what I hear, being the Silver Lo-Cap 55's are less restrictive to detail compared to the XKE cables.

Yes, we're all aware of your cable preferences and opinions thanks Jason.