Banana jacks and impedance

[JWBarlow at aol.com]

Harry knows a lot more than me, but let me add a couple of things. Serge T. 
always made a big deal about the output impedance being 330 ohms as opposed 
to the standard 1K -- if you have the Serge Manual, you've probably seen the 
rather strange output buffer structure that he often used. Whether this "low 
impedance" has more to do with keeping crosstalk down, or making the modules 
more suitable for multing out to everything (like driving 7, 8 or more 
different inputs) without loading the output down has been brought up a few 
times on this list that I remember, but never with a clear resolution.

However, I don't have any Serge oscillators, but I do have an ARP which does 
have 10V p-p outputs, and I patch it to the Serge all the time, and I do get 
a lot of crosstalk -- unfortunately, I've been doing it for so long that I've 
become immune to it, or I use gated VCAs to block it out. I suggest trying it 
out before you make any panels or modifications.

Wouldn't it be better to have an input module that would both match the level 
and at the same time switch from banana to 1/4" jacks?

Harry knows a lot more than me, but I know how to have a good time!
John B.

In a message dated 12/28/99 3:37:11 PM, jamos at technotoys.com writes:

>Thank you, Harry. What you say makes sense; my rusty EE knowledge could
>not
>make sense of why input impedance would be relevant here, but I picked
>that
>notion up up somewhere - probably on AH. 
>
>Damn, why on earth isn't _everything_ +- 10v p-p?
>