Stereo output to balanced input?

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DarkHand

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Ok, I've got a presentation room at work with a projector/audio system setup... An amp that takes audio from either a DVD player or a laptop and outputs to the speakers in the front of the room. It normally has 2 RCA stereo inputs, one for DVD audio, one for PC audio. One of the inputs has died though, and I don't have time to get a replacement unit and have it invoiced in time for the December end of year cutoff. The amp has 7 balanced inputs on it as well, I'm wondering if there's a way I can hook up the stereo signal to one of the balanced inputs and play it as mono, without blowing anything up?

tldr: Can a standard stereo audio signal be wired to a balanced line input and played as mono, without any extra hardware?
 
I suppose my question should be how can I connect an unbalanced stereo output to a balanced input without extra hardware. :D

One channel to hot and one to cold would cancel out, maybe both channels to both hot and cold, and ground to earth?

Could I somehow use two balanced inputs, put one channel on each, and get stereo? Or is all this just crazy talk.
 
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2-1 rca adapter.....right? That should take both and connect them to the one you have left
 
2-1 rca adapter.....right? That should take both and connect them to the one you have left

Crap... Actually I didn't think about that... I could hook one channel of each output to one channel of the still-working input. Why didn't I think of that! :D

And for posterity, I found out how to connect an unbalanced source to a balanced input: Connect one of the channels on the unbalanced output to the hot side of the balanced input, and the ground on the unbalanced side to both the cold and earth on the balanced side.
 
And for posterity, I found out how to connect an unbalanced source to a balanced input: Connect one of the channels on the unbalanced output to the hot side of the balanced input, and the ground on the unbalanced side to both the cold and earth on the balanced side.

In most situations I prefer to connect unbalanced to balanced this way, using a balanced cable(two conductor + shield):
Connect the signal/hot/tip of the unbalanced output to the hot side of the balanced input, and the ground/sleeve on the unbalanced side to cold on the balanced side. Then connect the balanced ground/earth to the shield and do not connect it at the unbalanced end.

This alleviates some problems when using test equipment and ground issues, while leaving the shield to do its job.
 
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