Sampa97 Posted April 19, 2018 Share Posted April 19, 2018 Hello guys I just bought a Helix Lt and I m a completely a newbie. It s my second effect pedalboard! I m gonna buy a pair of Yamaha hs8 but at the moment I have a pair of cheap edifier monitors. What is the best way to connect my helix to those monitors? Should I use the phones slot? 1/4? Which cable? Rca? Jack 6.3? I really dont know anything about balanced and unbalanced. Could you help me with all of this? Thank you so much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbuhajla Posted April 19, 2018 Share Posted April 19, 2018 Use whatever your monitors have available, either 1/4" or XLR. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doug6String Posted April 21, 2018 Share Posted April 21, 2018 I assume you got what you needed from jbuhajla. I have the Yamaha HS8 and they work pretty good, depending on what you want. I tried 1/4" vs XLR to see if there's a diff and I couldn't hear any (I've been playing a very long time so I have a pretty good ear). All of my playing is jamming, writing and recording and for me, headphones are the way I usually go. Based on recommendations here, I settled on the Beyerdynamic 770 (I think - I don't recall the model number). Since you're a complete newbie, I'm sure you'll have other questions. I was a newbie a year ago and this forum made all the difference for me! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dragonfet Posted April 22, 2018 Share Posted April 22, 2018 On 4/19/2018 at 2:05 PM, Sampa97 said: Hello guys I just bought a Helix Lt and I m a completely a newbie. It s my second effect pedalboard! I m gonna buy a pair of Yamaha hs8 but at the moment I have a pair of cheap edifier monitors. What is the best way to connect my helix to those monitors? Should I use the phones slot? 1/4? Which cable? Rca? Jack 6.3? I really dont know anything about balanced and unbalanced. Could you help me with all of this? Thank you so much. 1/4" and 6.35 mm are the same, those are the standard "guitar cables". They are usually unbalanced, which means they have two contacts (tip and sleeve). They work well for short distances, but if you want to run longer distances and/or have a lot of other equipment around (especially power cables and devices with a high power demand), you're better off using XLR. It allows for a balanced connection as it has three contacts, which cancels out a lot of the noise and hum they'll pick up along the way. There are symmetric 1/4" systems as well, those use connectors with three contacts (tip, ring and sleeve), but both devices have to support that. I personally prefer XLR because it can be mechanically secured and won't cause a loud pop on insertion and removal. The headphones jack is definitely wrong, it can be used in an emergency, but it's not ideal for anything but headphones. Cables are a topic of their own, and if you ask three people you'll get four opinions. Mine: Get cables in the lower mid price range for use in the band room and higher mid for live use. Cheap cables will be a constant annoyance and expensive cables will wear out just as much as reasonably priced ones. Their claimed sonic advantage is pretty much impossible to prove, aside from "But it sounds better to me". RCA is rarely used in a band environment, it's mostly on DJ equipment these days and on digital devices to transmit via S/PDIF. The Helix has those connectors and they work well, but their use only make sense if you have a digital signal chain. They require special cables too in order to work reliably. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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