Nord User Forum

Hello dear community; wanted to start off this post by wishing all of you a happy new year and best wishes.

I'm the proud owner of a Nord Stage 3 Compact which I've acquired recently and decided to go with a pair of Adam Audio T7V for amplification. I do also own a Focusrite 2i2 3rd gen soundcard which I would like to connect with the Nord Stage to start recording music.

Now my question may sound simple but I would like to have your advice on how to hook up all these devices together and more specifically which cables I need exactly. I went to a music store to get advice and they really seemed clueless when I asked them if I should go with Unbalanced or Balanced audiocables to connect my speakers. (I suspect the guy whom I spoke to is just a sales person and has had no technical training at all).

Anyways do you think I should use the outputs on the back of my soundcard to plugin the speakers and use the front connectors to jack in my Nord stage 3 Compact ? If so which cables do you think I should use to connect the speakers to my soundcard? Should I use TRS or just TS ?

Thanks a lot for your help

You need to check the manual of your sound card indeed, it should indicate if its outputs are balanced (normally they should) and in that case you need to use TRS cables to connect to the speakers.

Same regarding the inputs, check your soundcard manual about how to properly configure them for a stereo Line IN from a keyboard (and since Nord Stage 3 instead has unbalanced outputs, for this connection you can use TS cables)

Welcome and happy new year! Hopefully you're getting comfortable with your new gear. I agree with maxpiano, check the Focusrite manual. As a footnote, please don't worry that much. If you get TRS cables and use them in a TS unbalanced application, the Nord Stage 3 will just ignore the third conductor and treat it like a TS cable. And the Focusrite will not mind that there is only a signal on one conductor - the signal will be received fine. Maybe going with all TRS cables will make your life easier?

Make sure the cables are inserted all the way!

I have a Stage 3 with a audio interface and monitors. So I come out of the Stage 3 into the audio interface (TRS/XLR cables) then audio interface to my monitors (TRS cables). I don't know what type connector the Focusrite has so use what the Adams want.