Setup Guide - Connect Studio Monitors to Audio Interface (best settings)

Hey, Julian Kraus here, and I'm going to show you how to connect your studio monitors to your audio interface and set up everything correctly. You will need a pair of studio monitors, an audio interface, and some cables to connect the two. Which type of cable you need depends on the type of connection you're going to use. There are two types, balanced and unbalanced. Without going into too much detail, balanced connections can be superior to unbalanced connections as they minimize hum from ground loops while simultaneously providing a better rejection against noise. But don't expect any big differences in audio quality. In most cases, either connection type is fine. Balanced connections usually use XLR plugs or 1.25-inch TRS jacks. Audio interfaces mainly use 1.25-inch jacks, while monitors can sometimes even have both the types of inputs, so you can use the one you want. I'm personally a big fan of XLR connectors, as they provide a very solid connection. So I'm going to use a male XLR to 1.25-inch TRS cable. But like I said, you could also use a 1.25-inch to 1.25-inch TRS cable. In any case, make sure that the 1.25-inch jack has three contacts. This is needed for a balanced connection. Do not use 1.25-inch TS plugs, which only have two contacts and look like this. TRS jacks are the way to go with balanced connections. There is also the possibility to use an unbalanced connection. This type of connection often uses RCA connectors. So if your interface and your monitor both use RCA connectors, you are going to need a standard RCA to RCA cable. But what do you do if your interface has unbalanced outputs and your monitor only has balanced inputs? Or the other way around? In this case, you can use an RCA to male XLR cable or use an RCA to TS cable. And there is also the possibility to use an adapter, which converts RCA to a TS jack. Because this is going to be an unbalanced connection, the 1.25-inch jack should be TS in this case. It is okay to go with an unbalanced connector into a balanced input. It just won't be a balanced connection then, but it still works fine. You need to take a bit more care when plugging an unbalanced TS jack into a balanced output on an audio interface, as it shorts one side of the output to ground. Please consult the manual of your audio interface to check if it can handle that. Many audio interfaces can. So again, if both devices offer a balanced connection, then that's the way to go. If not and the interface and monitors provide an unbalanced connection, this is also fine. And only go from an unbalanced output on an interface to a balanced input on your monitors if there is no other way of connecting them. I am now going to show you the connection process with the balanced connections, but it is the exact same for the other ones as well, so you can simply follow along. First, make sure that you turn down the volume on your monitors and the interface all the way. If your monitors have some kind of EQ setting on the back, set them to 0 dB or off. You can fine-tune the EQ settings later. Sometimes you will find a switch called Sensitivity, which lets you select plus 4 dBu or minus 10 dBv. Plus 4 dBu is generally used for balanced connections and minus 10 dBv for unbalanced connections. So if you have used a balanced connection, set it to plus 4 dBu and if you used an unbalanced connection, set it to minus 10 dBv. After that, connect the monitors to your interface. Use the cable that you determined earlier and plug one side into the monitor output on the interface and the other side into the input on the studio monitors. Do this for both monitors. Now it is time to set up the volume control on your monitors. This is important because if you don't do this, you might end up using only a very small amount of your volume on your audio interface, making it difficult to control. Or the other extreme is that you would max out the volume on the interface and your monitors don't get as loud as you want. To set up the volume, start to play some music on your computer. Turn up the volume on your interface to about 2 thirds of the total adjustable range. Then slowly turn up the volume dial on your monitors until the music is at a comfortable listening level or maybe even a bit louder at your listening position. Some monitors have a 0 dB mark on their volume knob. This is usually a good setting to aim for. After you have set the volume like described, double check that the volume on both your monitors is set to the exact same amount, so they are equally loud. From now on, you can leave the volume control on the back of the monitors untouched and only control the volume with a dial on the audio interface. If set up correctly, you will typically use about 2 thirds of your volume control to listen to normal music and if you want to crank it up from time to time, you have some more volume on your interface to push the monitors to a loud listening level. If you later discover that at the maximum volume setting on your interface, your monitors don't get quite as loud as you want, you can always go back and slightly increase the volume of the monitors a bit further. Please give me a thumbs up if this video helped you out and subscribe for more videos like this. Till then, enjoy your music!