Why so few male to male XLR cables?

[rwillett]

I was looking for a cable to connect my little Yamaha MG06X mixer to a Yamaha reference speaker HS-7. The speaker has 1/4" and female XLR. The mixer has female XLR.

 

So I thought I'd simply buy a male XLR to a male XLR cable and connect the mixer and speaker.

 

However there appears to to gazillions of male to female XLR, male to male is a little rare, I can get a few ones that are 1M long or whatever but it's 1 in a 100 or so

 

This made me think that I'm doing something wrong because I would have thought this would be dead common. But its not, putting an adapter on to convert the cable is something I normally try not to do.

 

So I think I'm doing something wrong here, and should be doing something else.

Would welcome feedback and thoughts.

 

Thanks

Rob

[80Hz]

Male XLR is output, female is input. The outputs on the MG mixer are the male XLRs on the top right. Or you can use the 1/4" TRS outputs and go TRS-TRS.

[Jakester]

Well, I'd have thought it's because (not sure whether that developed by design or convention) the XLR pins tend to 'point' the way the signal is going - so something with male pins (such as a mic) 'points' the signal into something that receives the signal (female sockets). 

 

So something supposed to carry signal but having a female output is fairly rare I'd have thought as it would go against convention. 

 

Are you sure your mixer has female outputs?

 

This suggests the MG06X has male outputs...

 

[rwillett]

Just now, Jakester said:

Well, I'd have thought it's because (not sure whether that developed by design or convention) the XLR pins tend to 'point' the way the signal is going - so something with male pins (such as a mic) 'points' the signal into something that receives the signal (female sockets). 

 

So something supposed to carry signal but having a female output is fairly rare I'd have thought as it would go against convention. 

 

Are you sure your mixer has female outputs?

 

This suggests the MG06X has male outputs...

 

I'm a sodding moron.

 

I'm now going to delete this thread, find the servers it's hosted on and erase them, I'll then track down every person who has read this and erase their device and the edge caches. After this Im going to head to a cave and brick the entrance up and stay in there for a few years until this thread has been wholly forgotten. 
 

I glanced at the wrong input and I have the mixer sitting on my desk. 
 

Rob

[80Hz]

Everything is obvious until you're sitting there by yourself trying to figure it out!! 

[Jakester]

30 minutes ago, rwillett said:

I'm a sodding moron.

 

I'm now going to delete this thread, find the servers it's hosted on and erase them, I'll then track down every person who has read this and erase their device and the edge caches. After this Im going to head to a cave and brick the entrance up and stay in there for a few years until this thread has been wholly forgotten. 
 

I glanced at the wrong input and I have the mixer sitting on my desk. 
 

Rob

 

We've all been there! 🤣

[BigRedX]

The only time you need an XLR lead with the same connector on each end is when you are using a passive DI box for re-amping in which case you'll want a female to female cable.

[rwillett]

Agreed but I'm still a moron

[Si600]

Also because if you plug it into a powered mixer you have the possibility of sticking your finger into a 48v live socket at the other end. Probably won't do any harm but it would make your fingertip tingle 😉

[itu]

Only use ordinary F-M cables, and in case something special is needed, add these:

 

https://www.thomann.co.uk/neutrik_na_3_mm.htm

 

https://www.thomann.co.uk/neutrik_na3ff_xlr_adapter.htm