CDX2 to active speakers

[ptcm10]

Just got these Unity active speakers

Want to connect it to CDX2.

What cable do I need?

Thanks a lot.

[HungryHalibut]

I believe you’ll also need a preamp, either active or passive. Connect the CDX2 to the preamp, and the preamp to the speakers. The picture shows the pin connections, which appear to be balanced. So a preamp with balanced outputs would probably be the simplest.

[ptcm10]

Woud it be possible to use a 5-PIN DIN to balance (male) cable to achieve that ? Does this cable exist ?

I assume 5-PIN has 5 different elements but XLR balance (male) only has 3-PIN. What happens to the missing 2-pin ?

Thanks

[Simon-in-Suffolk]

You can connect without a preamp with a few provisos. Physically you can use a cable that does this, you would need to make yourself or likely have somebody make one for you, as it’s a none standard/ non optimised configuration. However electrically it won’t be optimum, as you would be going from unbalanced to balanced connections. So for a short term kludge where performance is not key you could do this. I assume you would be using the gain control on the active speaker as the volume control? If you want to do long term and descent SQ , you will need to use unbalanced to balanced signal converters (either active or passive) there are some high quality passive inline transformers for the professional market that you can use.

The difference in pins is because you are going from 1x stereo unbalanced (5 pin DIN) to 2 x mono balanced (3 pin XLR) connectors.

In a mono balanced connector you have a +ve and -ve signal, where they are a reflection of each other and signal ground or centre. With an unbalanced connector you simply have signal and ground… or in 5 pin stereo DIN, left signal, right signal and common signal return.

[Richard.Dane]

Just be aware that the CDX2 was not designed to drive long interconnects and some performance loss or even possible instability may result. You really do need some sort of pre-amp here.

[PeakMan]

I think those speakers also have RCA inputs, so balanced cables perhaps not essential. I agree with HH and Richard, though, that using a preamp is much preferable. One with balanced outputs might be worth considering .

Roger

[Simon-in-Suffolk]

If they have unbalanced inputs then sure, I had a quick gander at the ictures and didn’t notice any unbalanced phonos

[PeakMan]

It’s in the specs.

Roger

[ptcm10]

Thanks for everyone’s(esp Simon) input pointing me to the right direction.

I’ve just tried using 5-pin to XLR cable into the speakers. It works but no volume control is an issue because every CD has different loudness level.

Now I am leaning to use my 282/HCDR as PRE. My question now again is how and what cable do I need?

4-pin DIN out from HCDR to XLR? Also which socket on HCDR should I plug the 4-pin into?

Thanks a lot.

[ptcm10]

[Richard.Dane]

Yes, any one of the three 4pin DINs is fine as they all output the same 2 channel signal.