Mastering Audio: Røde VXLR Pro Adapter Review - Balanced vs. Unbalanced 3.5mm Mini Jack to XLR

a few months ago i actually created a video comparing the rode vxlr plus to the rode vxlr and these are adapters so that you can connect any kind of microphone that usually uses a trs or me jack connection straight to a audio recorder like the zoom h5 or the zoom f6 which i have right here the big thing there being that you can actually use the xlr connection at the bottom of the h5 here for example and xlr cables are a very different kind of cable than the usual trs or normal like auxiliary cable connection now however rode released a completely new adapter to this lineup the rode vxlr pro and you're probably wondering why did you actually need three different adapters doing exactly the same thing but that's exactly what we're going to cover in this video a full-on comparison between these three adapters and their different use cases first up as in many other videos a quick disclaimer the rode vxlr as well as the rode vxlr plus i purchased about last october to test them out and use them in my own set now since the video where i compared these two was so well received now that rode actually released the vxlr pro i asked them and they were able to kindly send me one even before they became available in stores so as of making this video the rode vxlr pro is actually not available in most online stores that i have checked but they will become available relatively soon but for transparency rode gave me this review for the purpose of making this review i'm not receiving any additional money so this is not a sponsored video and i get to keep the adapter once the video is finished so with that said let's jump in open this box up and compare the feature sets of these adapters now first things first of course we have to get into the box and for that i need a bit of more space right here and of course i kind of already opened it before it's a relatively simple box to be honest just a bit of cardboard a little bit of a hanger and once you have it open this is what you get inside of the box and there is a little clip like so and now we can get rid of that have the adapter right there and for a quick glance this is the box with a bit of a description at the bottom and the back and that's that now generally speaking this adapter is very much similar to all the other adapters of course it is a little bigger and it also is significantly heavier than the other two these two coming in at about 48 grams and this one coincidentally at 84 grams conveniently the vxlr pro and the plus both come with a little belt clip like so so you either can clip it to some gear or maybe even use it as a belt when you're using this to run a la vie microphone into a xlr cable to for example just wire that up when you have someone sitting for a relatively long time now i don't really use these clips i have them stored in a bit of a box or something because most of the time i just need the adapter let's go and have a couple steps back what are these adapters for and what do they actually do now for the most part these adapters and it doesn't really matter which one you choose adapt a signal from a 3.5 millimeter mini jack connection or also called a trs connection to a 3-pole xlr male connection so that's the basic premise of all three of these adapters to go from mini jack to xlr now why would you actually want to do that and i would say the most obvious reason being that you for example want to use something like this microphone the rode video micro and of course this also works with other brands this is not limited to rode rode microphones are just the ones that i happened to be using for the last couple of years for the most part so that's the one that i have right here so with this video micro you can just plug this into this adapter and from there you can for example go with that signal into a audio recorder like the zoom h5 that i have right here now there are many reasons why you might want to do something like this for example you want to use a more professional audio mixer and also still use the microphones that you have been using for a long time so that's one of the obvious reasons for adapters like this but the other one would for example be if you want to use a lavie like the la vie go from rode or any of the new dd microphones the larvae microphones from them and you want to use an adapter like this for example if you want to run those lavie microphones into a rode caster pro or maybe a zoom pod track for podcast recording all of those use cases need the normal mini jack connection to xlr because those other devices like the zoom pod track p4 the f6 the h5 the road caster pro all of those expect a xlr signal so that's the basic reasoning why you might want to do that however then there are three of these adapters now these three actually are very different and there are good reasons to go with these different ones for different purposes of course they also have different price points starting here with the smallest one the rode vxlr which is about nine us dollars then we have the rode vxlr plus which is about 25 us dollars as of recording this video now the new kid on the block the vxlr pro costs about 40 us dollars as of the release date and by doing so it is by far the most expensive out of these three however there is a good reason for that and it has a specific feature set that also makes it pretty special and also probably worth the money but let's dive deeper into this comparison as to what these different adapters do and why you probably should not go for the rode vxlr depending on what you want to do now the first major difference between these is actually something that both of these the pro and the plus have in common however the rode vxlr does not and that is the conversion of phantom power to plug in power the rode vxlr this one right here the cheapest of the three is simply a adapter which takes whatever you put on here and just makes a wire swap and gets it to the outside of those three pins right there so there are no electronics whatsoever inside of the rode vxlr adapter this one simply takes the wires from one type to the other side and that's the one for about 10 us dollars or nine us dollars however the problem there is that a lot of microphones actually need plug-in power like for example this one right here which is the rode videomicro this microphone does not have a built-in battery and thus it needs power from the device that you're connecting it to and that type of power is called plug-in power now those xlr microphones that you usually plug into a device like these audio recorders here those either need no power or they need something called phantom power the problem is that phantom power is actually something between 24 and 48 volts whereas the plug-in power that microphones like these need is around five or under five volts and that is a really big difference the same thing is also true for a microphone like for example here the rode videomic ntg and the difference there is that the videomic ntg actually does have a built-in battery so it does not really need the battery power from the plug-in power to be powered however the plug-in power on the videomic ntg is used to detect whether or not the device should be turned on so the microphone should be turned on or not now with this microphone you actually have the option to just turn it on by yourself by using the power button but i also have used for example the ded v-mic d3 pro and that one also has a built-in battery and it has this smart standby mode but that one actually needs the plug-in power to be powered on because otherwise it just does not turn on so you have to be aware of that why am i telling you about all this phantom power and plug-in power again the difference between these two adapter sets here the vxlr and the pro and the plus is that the vxlr is just wires no electronics on the other side we have the rode vxlr plus and pro and both of these actually have transformers inside which take the phantom power the audio recorder provides and they both turn it into plug-in power for the microphones that you have plugged in right here at the top what you can also notice when looking closely these actually also have something there which is a threaded connector so that you can actually thread a microphone on top of here for example via microphones oftentimes use that and i think also the rode filmmaker kit for example the big wireless set also uses this threaded connector so for this first comparison between these the rode vxlr does not transform phantom power to plug-in power you should only use this adapter when you know that your microphone does not need phantom power and you're also running a relatively short cable then the rode vxlr might be the right adapter for you one specific use case for this one however is that you can plug it directly into your recorder and for example plug the rode wireless go or any other wireless connection set directly in here and with that you don't need the phantom power plug-in power conversion because those wireless sets have their own battery power and you also don't really have a big distance to come over so i would say that's a use case for the rode vxlr and in previous tests that i made this one also provided the signal with the least noise so to say because there is literally no electronics here that could add any noise it's just wiring however again this only is good for when you need a microphone adapter that only adapts the ports you don't want to use phantom power on the vxlr because you might destroy your microphone that you plug in right here at the top now with that i'm gonna take this one out of the mix because the rest of the story is between these two adapters since they both do the phantom power to plug in power conversion however they still have a very significant difference between the two now you might be wondering how much of a difference can there actually be between adapters that simply take a mini jack to xlr connection and i was thinking the same thing but i also thought that the vxlr plus does something that it didn't and the vxlr pro now does exactly that but for that we have to zoom out a little bit and talk about unbalanced and balanced signals now what's the deal between those two and i'm trying to understand this as much as possible and also convey it as best i can i might have some errors here but i think that the general concept i have down so for example if you would have a cable like this in this case the connections is actually with four cables so you have one two three four metal rings on this side and then you have four metal rings on this other side now this is a trrs cable which is used to connect stereo audio and microphone at the same time however i'm just trying to take this as for demonstrations now if you have a unbalanced signal that always just needs two strings of connection so that would be a mono and unbalanced signal so imagine you only have the top two wires here so with that you have one ground and one that has electricity on it so you have that electric circuit essentially however the problem is if you pick up any interference throughout the cable anywhere on the way between the two connectors then that interference will also be recorded by your audio recorder now how does that differ from a balanced signal and there we can actually take a look at xlr cables and the special thing there is that usually xlr cables are always so called mono cables so there is just one signal going through here and if you would want to have a stereo signal for left and right connection you would actually need two xlr cables to run that signal and still the xlr cable though has three connectors on each side you have three in here and then you have three on the other side and that is because xlr cables can transfer a balanced signal and then on the other side for example with an audio recorder usually those there's also support balanced signal input which then has some electronics to do some magic which we'll have to talk about in a second so generally speaking the difference between a unbalanced and a balanced signal in terms of the cabling is that a balanced signal needs three connections like a xlr cable provides and a unbalanced signal would be okay with just two of those prongs and two of those holes on the other side so what's the difference between three prongs and two cables why is that making any difference and that's the point where it becomes really technical but the basic overview is that with three cables there is one which is used for ground and then you have two others which both transmit the information that the microphone is sending and in the case of a balanced signal the signal is actually sent on both of those other two connectors so you're actually utilizing all three of the prongs inside of the xlr cable and what is happening there is that the signal actually gets sent inverted on one channel and in the original form on the second one and the reason why that is actually important is because on the other side inside of the audio recorder those two information strings essentially those two waveforms which are inverted to each other can actually be added up and with that you can basically see or have one strain of information which is just the interference that has been picked up throughout the cable and with that you can then remove the interference and you have a clean signal on the other side because you basically split the signal in half inverted one sent those two through the cable and then package them back together and kind of doing a error control or a fail control and having a clean signal on the other side the documentation on rhodes website says that with the rode vxlr pro you can actually run up to 100 meters of cabling with exactly this setup and that is the difference between the vxlr pro and the vxlr plus now the vxlr plus does do the phantom power to plug in power conversion in its electronics however it does not do the work that is necessary to provide that balanced signal that is something only the new vxlr pro also supports so now that we have discussed the basic difference between these three i'm also going to include a sound sample of each of these adapters recorded into the zoom f6 trying to hear whether or not there are any issues i'm also going to include sound samples where i'm running all of this through a kind of like a makeshift long xlr cable this is probably about nine meters of cabling and i'm not necessarily sure if we will pick up any interference but let's hear for yourself in this little sound sample comparison dig deep within yourself for there is a fountain of goodness ever ready to flow if you will keep digging dig deep within yourself for there is a fountain of goodness ever ready to flow if you will keep digging dig deep within yourself for there is a fountain of goodness ever as you flow if you will keep digging dig deep within yourself for there is a fountain of goodness ever ready to flow if you will keep digging dig deep within yourself for there is a fountain of goodness ever ready to flow if you will keep digging dig deep within yourself for there is a fountain of goodness averaged to flow if you will keep digging dig deep within yourself for there is a fountain of goodness average flow if you will keep digging now i hope up to now this video was already filled with information for you and you could understand a little better what the difference is between the vxlr vxlr plus and vxlr pro generally to kind of like conclude this the vxlr is a adapter that you should only purchase if you know your microphone does not need phantom power for example when you want to use the rode videomic ntg and also don't want to run any long cables because again this only changes the wiring from mini jack to a xlr input um and it does not do anything else than that on the other hand the rode vxlr plus is probably enough if you are using the whole thing within your own little youtube studio or something similar and you are not working on a full set with a lot of interference a lot of wireless connections a lot of other cables and also if your cables aren't really that long but you do want to have the conversion of phantom power from phantom power to plug in power so that you can then also power for example a microphone that needs that and then we have the new kit on the block the rode vxlr pro basically for those situations where you want to have the safety and security that even though you have long cables you have a lot of interference you have wireless connections going on and all of those things and your signal is going to be fine when you're using this adapter something to note here is that an adapter like this should always be used on the side of the microphone so that the connection between the microphone and the adapter is as short as possible and then you have a balanced signal that is transmitted through a xlr cable to your audio recorder you should not be using something like this which is a normal trs connection and an extension cord in that because that of course is not a balanced signal and it is very much prone to signal degradation and of course the pickup of interference so again the rode vxlr pro it is the most expensive between the three adapters that rode offers in this area but it also is the one that gives you the most safety in terms of connecting your microphone to your audio recorder and not recording interference and instead recording a very clean signal now i hope with this video i could give you a bit of an understanding and overview of the different rode vxlr adapters now if you would like this video then i would appreciate a thumbs up if you want to check out these products on amazon and other stores you can check out the links in the description that i have prepared there and if you have any questions recommendations or feedback you can leave those thoughts in the comments section down below i'm going to try to answer you there or make a video specifically about your question with all that said i hope you have an amazing day have fun recording your audio without interference and i will see you in the next video ciao you

Channel: Chris Spiegl

Views: 65,218

Keywords: Phantom Power Adapter, Phantom Power to Plug In Power, Rode VXLR, Røde, VXLR Plus, VXLR Pro, New VXLR Adapter, Balanced Signal, Unbalanced Signal, Balanced 3.5mm Jack, Balanced XLR Adapter, How to use TRS Microphone with XLR Cable, How to record VideoMic NTG into XLR input, How to record lavalier into XLR, Adapting XLR to 3.5mm, Long Cable XRL 3.5mm, New Release, Gear Review, Gear Comparison, Noise Comparison, Best VXLR Adapter, Cheap XLR Adapter, XLR Adapter Recommendation

Id: AOmZ6H4aP7U

Length: 21min 59sec (1319 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 11 2021