This topic is locked from further discussion.
6.5mm is used for pro audio, it's the standard for profesional Vinal Decks and alot of good hoe amplifyers comes with them. They're mainly used becasue it's the same plug for any professional musical device, profesional mikes, electric guitars, keyboards all use the same 6.5mm jack. The idea being that you only need one type of cablingand if you wire them into a mixing desk there is no difference between a guitar channel and a mike channel as far as the desk is concerned. This also applies for profesional speakers and good hifi speakers so top end headphones generally use the same plug too so you don't need another type of output plug. Top end inpput and outputs need the bigger plug as there is too high a current for a small jack to cope with.
Just to be clear, 6.5mm or 1/4" jacks are not all the same. As pointed out it is a standard size but the signals carried over them is not and plugging something higher powered into sensitive equipment can destroy the equipment. Example, guitar output is generally 1/4" but needs to go through a DI box to be stepped down before going into a mixer or other device expecting "line level" signals. Even worse would be plugging a speaker output which carries many times the power into anything other than a speaker. Nowadays powered speakers which have their own amplifiers built in would even get fried if you plugged a normal amplified speaker output into them which is I believe why they generally don't have 1/4" inputs, just XLR. With XLR, you can assume at least you aren't dealing with amplified signals. Most computer speakers are powered speakers with either usb, battery or AC power which is why a 3.5mm plug works for them.6.5mm is used for pro audio, it's the standard for profesional Vinal Decks and alot of good hoe amplifyers comes with them. They're mainly used becasue it's the same plug for any professional musical device, profesional mikes, electric guitars, keyboards all use the same 6.5mm jack. The idea being that you only need one type of cablingand if you wire them into a mixing desk there is no difference between a guitar channel and a mike channel as far as the desk is concerned. This also applies for profesional speakers and good hifi speakers so top end headphones generally use the same plug too so you don't need another type of output plug. Top end inpput and outputs need the bigger plug as there is too high a current for a small jack to cope with.
markop2003
[QUOTE="markop2003"]Just to be clear, 6.5mm or 1/4" jacks are not all the same. As pointed out it is a standard size but the signals carried over them is not and plugging something higher powered into sensitive equipment can destroy the equipment. Example, guitar output is generally 1/4" but needs to go through a DI box to be stepped down before going into a mixer or other device expecting "line level" signals. Even worse would be plugging a speaker output which carries many times the power into anything other than a speaker. Nowadays powered speakers which have their own amplifiers built in would even get fried if you plugged a normal amplified speaker output into them which is I believe why they generally don't have 1/4" inputs, just XLR. With XLR, you can assume at least you aren't dealing with amplified signals. Most computer speakers are powered speakers with either usb, battery or AC power which is why a 3.5mm plug works for them. Very useful bumping a year old thread.6.5mm is used for pro audio, it's the standard for profesional Vinal Decks and alot of good hoe amplifyers comes with them. They're mainly used becasue it's the same plug for any professional musical device, profesional mikes, electric guitars, keyboards all use the same 6.5mm jack. The idea being that you only need one type of cablingand if you wire them into a mixing desk there is no difference between a guitar channel and a mike channel as far as the desk is concerned. This also applies for profesional speakers and good hifi speakers so top end headphones generally use the same plug too so you don't need another type of output plug. Top end inpput and outputs need the bigger plug as there is too high a current for a small jack to cope with.
bruncleb
Please Log In to post.
Log in to comment