3/9/13

Impedance FAQ

Ph 1.800.827.3123
View Cart | Login | Contact Us

SEARCH

Company
About us Contact us Shipping Info Policies International Order Printable Catalog Feedback Testimonials Myspace Page

Tech Tips
IMPEDANCE FAQ
by Bruce Bartlett Impedance is one of audio's more confusing concepts. To clarify this topic, I'll present a few questions and answ ers about impedance. WHAT IS IMPEDANCE? Impedance (Z) is the resistance of a circuit to alternating current, such as an audio signal. Technically, impedance is the total opposition (including resistance and reactance) that a circuit has to passing alternating current. A high impedance circuit tends to have high voltage and low current. A low impedance circuit tends to have relatively low voltage and high current. I'M CONNECTING TWO AUDIO DEVICES. IS IT IMPORTANT TO MATCH THEIR IMPEDANCES? WHAT HAPPENS IF I DON'T? First some definitions. When you connect tw o devices, one is the source and one is the load. The source is the device that puts out a signal. The load is the device you are feeding the signal into. The source has a certain output impedance, and the load has a certain input impedance. A few decades ago in the vacuum tube era, it w as important to match the output impedance of the source to the input impedance of the load. Usually the source and load impedances w ere both 600 ohms. If the source impedance equals the load impedance, this is called "matching" impedances. It results in maximum POWER transfer from the source to the load. In contrast, suppose the source is low Z and the load is high Z. If the load impedance is 10 times or more the source impedance, it is called a "bridging" impedance. Bridging results in maximum VOLTAGE transfer from the source to the load. Now adays, nearly all devices are connected bridging -- low -Z out to high-Z in -- because w e w ant the most voltage transferred betw een components. If you connect a low -Z source to a high-Z load, there is no distortion or frequency-response change caused by this connection. But if you connect a high-Z source to a low -Z load, you might get distortion or altered response. For example, suppose you connect an electric bass guitar (a high-Z device) into an XLR-type mic input (a low -Z load). The low frequencies in the signal w ill roll off, so the bass w ill sound thin. We w ant the bass guitar to be loaded by a high impedance, and w e w ant the mic input to be fed by a low -impedance signal. A direct box or impedance-matching adapter does this. Such adapters are available from Radio Shack. The adapter is a tube w ith a phone jack on one end and a male XLR connector on the other. Inside the tube is a transformer. Its primary w inding is high Z, w ired to the phone jack. The transformer's secondary w inding is low Z, w ired to the XLR.You plug the guitar cord into the phone jack, and plug the XLR into amic input in a snake or mixer. Use it w ith a bass guitar, electric guitar, or synth. This impedance-matching adapter w orks, but is not ideal. The load it presents to the bass guitar might be 12 kilohms, w hich w ill slighly load dow n the high-Z guitar pickup, causing thin bass. An active direct box solves this problem. In place of a transformer, the active DI usually has an FET (Field Effect Transistor). The FET has a very high input impedance that does not load dow n the bass guitar. HOW DO I KNOW WHAT A MICROPHONE'S IMPEDANCE IS? Check the impedance spec on the mic's data sheet. A microphone rated at 150 ohms to 300 ohms is considered low impedance. About 600 to 2000 ohms is medium impedance, and 10,000 ohms or more is high impedance. Most mics are low Z, and all mics w ith XLR (3-pin) connectors are low Z. A low -Z mic can be used w ith hundreds of feet of cable w ithout picking up hum or losing high frequencies. A medium-Z mic cable is limited to about 40 feet w ithout losses. A high-Z mic w ill lose highs and pick up hum if the cable exceeds about 10 feet.This high-frequency loss depends on the capacitance of the cable as w ell as the mic impedance. I'M CONNECTING A MIC TO A MIXER. IS IMPEDANCE A CONSIDERATION? Yes. If your mixer has phone-jack inputs, they are probably high Z. But most mics are low Z.When you plug a low -Z mic into a high-Z input you get a w eak signal. That's because a high-Z mic input is designed to receive a relatively high voltage from a high-Z mic, and so the input is designed to have low gain. So you don't get much signal amplification. Solution: Betw een the mic cable and the input jack, connect an impedance matching adapter. It steps up the voltage of the mic, giving it a stronger signal.The adapter is a tube w ith a female XLR input and a phone-plug output. Inside the tube is a transformer. Its primary w inding is low Z, w ired to the XLR. It secondary w inding is high Z, w ired to the phone plug. Connect the mic to the XLR; connect the phone plug to the mixer's phone jack.Then the mixer w ill receive a strong signal from the mic. If your mixer has XLR inputs, they are low -Z balanced. In this case, simply connect the mic to the mixer using a mic cable w ith a female XLR on the mic end and a male XLR on the mixer end. A low -Z mic input is typically about 1500 ohms, so it provides a bridging load to a mic that is 150 to 30 ohms. HOW ABOUT SPEAKER IMPEDANCE? Most loudspeakers are 4 or 8 ohms nominal. Actually the impedance varies w ith frequency. A speaker rated at 8 ohms impedance might range betw een 4 and 50 ohms, depending on the frequency of the signal. If you connect tw o identical speakers in parallel, the total impedance is half. For example, tw o 8-ohm speakers in parallel present a 4-ohm load to a pow er amplifier. If you connect tw o identical speakers in series, the total impedance is doubled. Tw o 8-ohm speakers in series present a 16-ohm load to a pow er amplifier. Suppose you have a speaker connected to a pow er amplifier. Generally, the low er the speaker impedance, the more pow er you get from the pow er amp. Some amps can handle a 2-ohm load, but many w ill overheat. Try to keep the load 4 ohms or higher. IS A 70-VOLT SYSTEM A HIGH-IMPEDANCE SYSTEM? Yes. In a 70V system, a pow er amp is connected to a step-up transformer w hich raises the amplifier output voltage w hile decreasing its current. This high-voltage, low -current signal is sent on long cables to a distributed system of many

Buy Behringer X32 Mixer

www.bajaao.com 50% off this January! Free nation-wide shipping.

Member
My Account Track Order Buyers Club

Matching Transformer
www.celem.com For induction heating, 20-350kHz frequency range, 8% loss, 500kVA

Info
The DAT Web International Ordering Info Resources/ Links Recording Acts Robin's-Eye View Tech Tips Tape Trader Pages

Sound System Services

Call_988674608 We Provide Crystal Quality Sound System On Rent. Enquire Now!

JST India
www.Jst-india.com Browse our range of Quality Electical & Electronic Connectors

www.deltamedia.com/resource/impedance.html

1/2

3/9/13

decreasing its current. This high-voltage, low -current signal is sent on long cables to a distributed system of many loudspeakers throughout a venue. Since the pow er is distributed w ith low current, there is little pow er loss through the long cables. At each speaker, another transformer steps dow n the voltage and raises the current. That is, it brings the impedance dow n to 4 or 8 ohms to match the speaker. SHOULD I CONSIDER IMPEDANCE WHEN I CONNECT TWO LINE-LEVEL DEVICES? This is seldom a problem. In most audio devices, the impedance of the line output is low -- about 100 to 1000 ohms. The impedance of the line input is high -- about 10K to 1 Meg ohms. So every connection is bridging, and you get maximum voltage transfer. Some audio devices, such as passive equalizers, require a terminating resistor at the input or output for best performance. CAN I CONNECT ONE SOURCE TO TWO OR MORE LOADS? Usually yes.You can connect several devices in parallel across one line output. Suppose you connect a mixer output simultaneously to a recorder input, an amplifier input, and another mixer's input in parallel. The combined input impedance of those three loads might be 4000 ohms, w hich still presents a bridging load to the mixer's 100-ohm output impedance. Mics are a different story. If you connect one mic to tw o or more mixers w ith a Y cable, the combined input impedance w ill be about 700 ohms or less. This can load dow n some microphones, reducing the bass in dynamic mics or causing distortion in condenser mics. One solution is to use a transformer mic splitter. CAN I CONNECT TWO OR MORE SOURCES TO ONE INPUT? Not recommended. If you combine tw o or more sources into a single load, the low output impedance of one source w ill load dow n the output of the other source, and vice versa. This can cause level loss and distortion. If you w ant to combine the signals from tw o devices into one input, you need to put a series resistor in line w ith each device before combining them. That prevents each device from loading dow n the other. A minimum resistor value might be 470 ohms per source. If the source is balanced, use one resistor on pin 2 and one on pin3 -- tw o resistors per source. SUMMARY * Impedance (Z) is the opposition to alternating current, measured in ohms. * Microphones and line outputs are usually low Z. * Electric guitars, synthesizers, and line inputs are usually high Z. * XLR mic inputs are low impedance; phone jack mic inputs are high impedance. * Speakers are usually 4 to 8 ohms. * Equal impedances in parallel result in half the impedance. * Equal impedances in series result in tw ice the impedance. * Connect low -Z sources to low -Z inputs. (A low -Z input is usually 7 to 10 times the source impedance, but it's still called a low -Z input). * Connect a low -Z source to a high-Z input through a step-up transformer (impedance matching adapter). * Connect a high-Z source to a low -Z input through a step-dow n transformer (impedance matching adapter, or direct box). APPENDIX FOR TECH HEADS Impedance includes both resistance and reactance. The reactance part is inductive reactance and capacitive reactance. Both vary w ith frequency. The resistive part is constant w ith frequency. Impedance is measured in magnitude (ohms) and phase (degrees) at a certain frequency. Usually the magnitude part is all w e are concerned w ith. The magnitude part of impedance is: Z = SQR (R^2 + (XL - XC)^2)) Where SQR means "square root", R = resistance, XL = inductive reactance, and XC = capacitive reactance, all in ohms. Many devices don't have much reactance, so w e often consider impedance to be the same as resistance.

Impedance FAQ

Bruce Bartlett is the author of "Practical Recording Techniques 2nd Ed." published by Focal Press Copyrighted 2000 by Deltamedia. May not be reproduced in whole or part without permission

CUSTOMER SERVICE Contact Us Policies Shipping Info Feedback Testimonials International Order

MY ACCOUNT My Account Track Order Buyers Club

COMPANY INFO About us Contact Us Printable Catalog Myspace Page

TOOLS & RESOURCES Tech Tips The DAT Web DVD-R Tech Info Resources/ Links Recording Acts

2004 Deltamedia International Inc. PO Box 1208, Guasti, CA 91743

www.deltamedia.com/resource/impedance.html

2/2