Balanced and unbalanced cables

1. What's the difference between balanced and unbalanced cables?
2. Are balanced or unbalanced cables better?
3. Why would you use an unbalanced cable?
4. Can I use balanced cables with unbalanced equipment?

What's the difference between balanced and unbalanced cables?

Balanced audio uses three conductors to carry the audio signal. Two of the conductors carry negative and positive signals (audio is an AC signal), and the third is used for grounding. With an unbalanced signal, there are only two conductors. One carries positive, the carries negative and is also used for ground.

Are balanced or unbalanced cables better?

Aside from these exceptions, balanced cables are a huge improvement over unbalanced. They have better signal-to-noise ratio, much lower impedance signals, and almost no external noise or distortion.

Why would you use an unbalanced cable?

Because unbalanced cables can pick up noise as a signal is sent along the cable, they're best used for short distances, like connecting a guitar to a nearby amp. This minimizes the risk of unwanted noise.

Can I use balanced cables with unbalanced equipment?

Even if you plug a balanced cable into an unbalanced output jack, the signal will be unbalanced (see the downsides of unbalanced above). ... In many cases, interconnecting a balanced output to an unbalanced input will work just fine - your signal will be unbalanced.