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Connecting your
airmotiv
™
4
s monitors to a portable player
Most portable music players offer only unbalanced outputs, usually via a 1/8” jack. Connect your
airmotiv
™
4s
speakers to a variable output (which is often also the headphone output). Use a
high quality, well shielded adapter cable to connect the output to the unbalanced (RCA) inputs
of your
airmotiv
4s
speakers. A single “long Y-cable” is preferable to multiple separate adapters
and extension cables. If you have an iPod® dock or other similar device, connect your
airmotiv
4s
speakers to the same output you would connect to the input of an amplifier or receiver; if the line
output on the dock doesn’t offer level control, then connect the cable to the headphone output
of the device.
Connecting your
airmotiv
4s
monitors to a computer
Connect your Airmotiv
4s
speakers to the same line-level output intended for powered computer
speakers. Depending on your computer or sound card, this may be labeled as “line out” or
“speaker out”. Make sure to choose outputs whose volume is controlled by your computer’s
operating system. Try to avoid outputs intended to drive small unpowered speakers directly
as these often have unacceptable sound quality. If no other options are available, headphone
outputs should be OK. Most computers offer only unbalanced outputs, usually via one or more
1/8” jacks. Use a high quality, well shielded adapter to connect the output to the unbalanced
(RCA) inputs of your
airmotiv
4s
speakers. A single “long Y-cable” is preferable to multiple separate
adapters and extension cables.
Balanced and unbalanced connections
The
airmotiv
4s
powered monitor offers both unbalanced (RCA) and balanced (XLR) input
connections. The main reason balanced connections are favored on professional equipment is
that they are very resistant to outside noise and interference, especially with low-level signal
sources (like microphones), and in difficult situations (a need to run signal cables near power
cables or in otherwise noisy environments). Balanced connections also offer a slight improvement
in the S/N ratio of the signal itself under certain conditions (but only if the equipment at both
ends is designed to do so). In general, using a balanced connection and cables is the best option
if the equipment at both ends offers it. If that option isn’t available, however, good quality
unbalanced cables usually work quite satisfactorily. To correct a common misunderstanding, if no
hum or noise is audible with an unbalanced connection, there is no specific technical reason to
expect a balanced connection to sound better. (However, in a given piece of equipment, one or
the other output may sound audibly better because of how the output circuitry was designed. In
that case, however, it isn’t necessarily the balanced output that will be superior.)
