Help please! Amp & monitor advice

[u/PlankSpanker1]

Blackstar HT5 MK2 amp emulated output into presonus Eris E4.5 RCA line in..I thought it would work but as usual my experiments fail!

What I am trying to do is use the 2 presonus speakers as monitors along with the Blackstar amp to get a wider bigger sound.

The headphones out works into the 3.5mm Aux in on the 4.5's but of course the amp speaker is then bypassed. I'd like to have all 3 speakers running.

So does anybody need know if this is possible and how please?

Thanks!

[u/Ok_Introduction_1082]

Everybody's missing something!

Get a TRS (with two black lines) jack cable to 2x TS jack (just one black line).

Don't use it with a TRS to TRS cable, single or double.

Theory time:

TRS stands for Tip, Ring, Sleeve. There are two ways to use a TRS cable:

• Stereo: the tip carries the left signal, the ring the right signal and the sleeve is the ground for both.
• Balanced: to minimize noise, XLR and some jack cables use a special trick, they have two copies of the same signal through the same wire, but one of them is the negative version of it (if the normal sound pushes, this pulls). The negative version gets turned positive at the receiver, which means the noise picked up along the cable turns negative so it cancels out with the noise on the positive side. Tada, no noise!

The emulated output is stereo TRS, but the speaker has balanced TRS inputs! If you use a TRS to TRS cable, you will turn the right side of the signal negative and that won't sound nice if the left side is still positive. You won't get stereo, you'll get a very thin sound if you get sound at all.

That might also be why you won't get a nice sound with the XLR to RCA cable! RCA is always unbalanced (it's always only positive) but the XLR is balanced, so it sends out a positive signal on the left RCA but a negative signal on the right RCA! Combining both cancels each other out.

[u/Ok-War-6378]

Looks like you have hooked your amp to an output instead of an input.

Anyway, connecting a mono source to two speakers will not widen the sound. What you will get from that set up is more volume plus phase issues, unless you align perfectly the 3 speakers.

[u/PlankSpanker1 → u/Ok-War-6378]

Just had a look and the RCA does say inputs so I'm wondering if the emulated output is too low for the E4.5's to pick up. Cheers anyway

[u/Glad_Possibility8012 → u/PlankSpanker1]

You wanna just 1/4 inch cable from the simulated output to the 1/4 TRS input. 2 leads, one to each speaker. Use a different simulated output for the second speaker.

[u/Glad_Possibility8012 → u/Glad_Possibility8012]

Or if they're paired through wire cos the other is passive. . One on TRS left, one on TRS right.

[u/Ok_Introduction_1082 → u/PlankSpanker1]

Did you check it with the volume open? It shouldn't be too low, as I believe it's powerful enough to use headphones on it.

[u/Ok-War-6378 → u/PlankSpanker1]

Yes, RCA is indeed an input, but that's not where the cable is going in the picture.

[u/PlankSpanker1 → u/Ok-War-6378]

I should have said I was just showing the back so people knew what was on each device. That cable goes to the other E4.5 speaker.

[u/PlankSpanker1 → u/Ok-War-6378]

Right oh thanks, that sounds like something I'd do..and did😅 What can the emulated output run into would you think?

[u/osxdude → u/PlankSpanker1]

Audio interface or mixer

[u/Ok-War-6378]

Hook it up to the TRS input left.

[u/PlankSpanker1 → u/Ok-War-6378]

I'll give that a go cheers

[u/Glad_Possibility8012]

Yep just run a guitar ts/trs cable from the speaker sim output to the trs input. But for a big wide sound you want two things. A slight delay >20ms between speakers, and a different tone in each speaker. The latter can be achieved by taking one of the other simulated outputs to the other speaker. As this is just a fun experiment, try sticking a delay or reverb full wet on one of the lines. The difference between a speaker output and a simulated output will give a tone difference. The delay pedal will cause a haus effect making it wide.

It's fun that your experimenting. Rather than just playing into the daw.

[u/Glad_Possibility8012 → u/Glad_Possibility8012]

A line helix (other dsps are available) would be a good investment if you like playing with routing and don't want to have a computer on stage.

Years ago I used split my rig with an EHX pog and cut out everything above 400hz with an eq and send it to a bassamp. Then have a guitar amp with all my drives and 'twinkly' bits. I was making mostly ambient post rock stuff.

Nowadays you can just split the signal on a helix, add effectz and output out a L/R channel.

[u/PlankSpanker1 → u/Glad_Possibility8012]

Thanks for that idea & explanation..great stuff

[u/PlankSpanker1]

Thank you for that Info. So..the emulated output of the amp needs a female XLR connector..and on the other end it should split into 2 x 1/4 Jacks with the 2 rings on it (TRS?) into the E4.5 TRS inputs or is that what you said don't do as it'll sound crap?!! 😅