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I have a Casio Px870 digital piano. I’m getting a pair of PreSonus Eris E5 XT 5". I need a cable to hook em up.

Both the piano and monitors have a 1/4” jack.

I always assumed that a 1/8 or 1/4” plug with 2 rings was stereo, a single ring mono. After
reading a little about balanced, unbalanced cables (which I never heard of) I’m not so sure anymore. Enough to give me headache.

Anyway, for the DP, I’m guessing I need a Y cable that has the male 1/4” TRS ( 2 rings) on one end for the piano, then splits into two male 1/4” TS (single ring) for the monitors. One for each monitor. I would think this would give me stereo sound through the monitors?

I saw a cable that has the TRS type plug on all three ends. Here, I’m guessing this would give mono sound?

So, is the cable I need a Balanced 1/4 TRS that splits to two 1/4 TS? Is having a “balanced” cable necessary, or would unbalanced be as good?

Thanks,
Muskie

Most likely your PX-870 output is a 1/4" unbalanced output for headphones or line out. So, you should get a single Y cable that is 1/4" unbalanced to 2 balanced XLR or 2 1/4" balanced (I would imagine your monitors expect balanced input on the 1/4" or XLR inputs).

You won't really get the benefit of balanced - but that will work.

Osho

As I understand, here is a sample of what you need:
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/160660-REG/Hosa_Technology_TRS_204_Stereo_1_4_Male_to.html

Not exactly. The cable with 3 TRS jacks splits stereo signal to two stereo signals, but what you need is split stereo signal to two balanced mono signals (TRS or XLR does not matter).

The easiest solution would be RCA splitter from my previous response IMHO.

This cable will also work:

This cable would work: https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/160656-REG/Hosa_Technology_STP_204_Stereo_1_4_Male_to.html
It converts stereo TRS to two mono unbalanced TR.

TRS balanced mono jack usually accepts TS unbalanced mono input.

It seems that this piano has only the headphone jack. No RCA line outputs. So the TRS plug - to - dual TS plug is the solution for connecting the monitors.

https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=601051#QuestionsandAnswers

They have a lifetime warranty on all their cables.

Thanks all for the responses. I sent for a TRS to dual TS.. that says unbalanced...because that’s what they had. Safe to say this will work. If I get a hum noise, I have a box of RCA cables, and some others I accumulated over the decades, that may work. Or I’ll look for a TRS to dual TS cable that says “balanced”.

I still don’t get the concept of balanced vs unbalanced, except it has nothing to do with it being TRS toTS, or Stereo to Mono.... I think.

I just want a noise free, stereo sound out of the monitors from the DP.

Thanks,
Muskie

MacMacMac is correct. This is indeed the type of cable I am using to connect my own Presonus Eris E5 XT studio monitors to my PX-870. It's just one cable (that plugs into one of your piano's two headphone jacks) which you can pull (split) apart, sending a length of it to each monitor.

That’s the one I sent for, CamperBC, so I should be good to go. This one:
https://www.sweetwater.com/store/de...-1-4-inch-trs-to-dual-1-4-inch-ts-9-foot

Muskie

When you get your cable you might follow-up with a post ... to let us know how long it takes to receive such non-essential items. Just curious.

TS/TRS is construction.
Balanced/unbalanced is how the carried signal is prepared and interpeted by sender and receiver.

Here is very easy explanation how the balanced audio is transmitted with additional conductor (wire) to reduce noise (the main advantage of balanced audio, especially useful for a low level signal, such as mic output; it is of less importance for high level signal such as line level signal):
https://www.boxcast.com/blog/balanced-vs.-unbalanced-audio-whats-the-difference

Headphone signal is relatively strong, balanced cable would still make sense if cable is very long or if environment is electromagnetically very noisy. In most cases good unbalanced cable with quality shielding is more than enough IMO.

TS cannot be used for balanced audio by definition, it has only 2 conductors.

TRS can be used for transmitting:
- balanced mono (potitive, negative, grounding)
- unbalanced stereo (left, right, grounding)

For balanced stereo with single connector the cable would need 5 wires with something like 4.4mm TRRRS Pentaconn plug, or with 5-pin XLR, but not many sources provide such output jacks yet. Please note that Pentaconn connectors were intentionally made mechanically incompatible (4.4mm) with 3.5mm and 1/4" TS/TRS to avoid issues if connected to an older equipment.

There are 2 scenarios of TRS to dual TS Y-cable use:

1. Stereo (unbalanced) TRS input to left and right mono TS outputs (both unbalanced) - stereo channel breakout to two mono channels - this is your case

2. Mono balanced TRS input to dual unbalanced TS outputs - one TS transmits positive, another one transmits negative, and both get the same grounding.

There is only one option for TRS to dual TRS:
- all 3 signals of TRS input are duplicated in each TRS output by soldering two wires to each contact of input plug: https://hosatech.com/products/analog-audio/y-cables/cys-100/

There is no way to convert stereo unbalanced TRS input to two TRS mono balanced outputs just with cable. Input TRS plug of such a cable would need to have some electronics embedded to reverse polarity of stereo signals, and this means it would need a power source. You would need a mixer for this.

Yup Muskie, that's the exact make/model of cable that I bought for my identical (Presonus Eris E5 XT to Privia PX-870) setup. Great minds think alike!

Nicely set up there, camp-meister.

Thanks, MacMacMac-meister! Don't mind the big TV though... just haven't gotten around to finding somewhere else to stick it yet.

Glad to hear that, CamperBC, because I know you’re very pleased with the sound.

Thanks, VladK, lots of that article did make sense, even if some got tech. I used to believe unbalanced= stereo, balance =mono. I now know that is not the case. The article did have some good tips on how to run cables to prevent noise.

With the vast amount of electronic devices available now, also came a whole host of connectors; various USBs, different types of HDMI, and a bunch oh others I’m sure. One is almost forced to keep up.
Thanks,
Muskie

LOL, the first thing that caught my eye was: what the heck is this horizontal slit on the TV screen the cable from the piano goes through??? I've never seen anything like this! Ever! And only then I realized that this is reflection of the lamp on the TV screen, there is no slit and no cable there!!!

Haha!

Mac.. If you were truly curious about the delivery time of “non-essential “ items, in this case it was fast... extremely fast.

I ordered the cable Saturday, it was shipped Monday, arrived here Tuesday (today). So, it took 1 day shipping time. I didn’t request any type of speedy delivery , it was their ‘free shipping’. They’re in Indiana I’m pretty sure, I’m in Michigan, so it’s not cross country. Regardless, one day is super fast.

Muskie

With all the work they're doing on artificial intelligence, I expect that one day soon the product will arrive even before I order it.