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[David Allred]

Out of necessity I need 2 balanced line outputs in stereo to be sent out a single xlr.  Left on 2 and right on 3. The mating cable will be xlr toTS left and right.  Should the pin 3 leads be tied to the shield? 

Thanks.

[Stu McDoniel]

Maybe you can get something out of this

http://www.rane.com/note110.html

[David Buckley]

As ever, it depends:  if there are transformers involved, then yes, typing pin 3 to the ground is mandatory.  If the source is genuine electronic balanced or impedance balanced, then leave pin 3 unconnected.  If the input is a transformerless input, again leave pin 3 unconnected.

[Paul G. OBrien]

Out of necessity I need 2 balanced line outputs in stereo to be sent out a single xlr. 

Not possible unless you use a special 5 conductor cable.

Left on 2 and right on 3. The mating cable will be xlr to TS left and right. 

Well the mating cable isn't balanced so there is no point to all this, balanced interconnects serve no purpose unless the devices on both ends have balanced I/O interfaces. If noise suppression is needed then run a pair of balanced XLR interconnects form the source out to the destination and put a stereo DI box on the end to convert from balanced to unbalanced. But if you don't need that then just build/buy a cable to convert the dual XLR outputs to a single unbalanced XLR(leave pin3 disconnected on the balanced ends) and another XLR to dual TS Y cable for the far end. I built something similar to get audio from a laptop over to the mixer location 50-75ft away using a single XLR cable and it works great with no noise issues.

[Andrew Broughton]

No AES connections available? (AES is stereo down a single 3-pin XLR)

[Keith Broughton]

Here is an answer to the actual post title question.

On the balanced outs tie pin 3 to shield on each output.
Connect the shields of the 2 outputs to the shield of the single XLR cable.
Connect pin 2 of the right output to pin 2 of the XLR cable  and the left output pin 2 to pin 3 of the XLR cable.
At the receiving end, you will end up with what the title suggests. Stereo UNBALANCED.
Depending on what you are going into will determine the correct pin wiring.
Hope this makes sense.

[David Allred]

Here is an answer to the actual post title question.

On the balanced outs tie pin 3 to shield on each output.
Connect the shields of the 2 outputs to the shield of the single XLR cable.
Connect pin 2 of the right output to pin 2 of the XLR cable  and the left output pin 2 to pin 3 of the XLR cable.
At the receiving end, you will end up with what the title suggests. Stereo UNBALANCED.
Depending on what you are going into will determine the correct pin wiring.
Hope this makes sense.

This?

[Keith Broughton]

This?

Yep!

[David Allred]

Yep!

Yea!  I did it right.  Thanks for the confirmation.

[Josh Millward]

Maybe you can get something out of this

http://www.rane.com/note110.html

All of this, all day long.

1. Go to the link.

2. Scroll down to the chart and look at the first two configurations, mono balanced XLR output to unbalanced TS. Note that there are two different configurations for different output designs, noted as 3b and 5.

3. Scroll further down to see how 3b and 5 are diagrammed.

4. Extend the concept to putting two channels into one cable.

[ProSoundWeb Community]