Rean MA96 Patch Bay - Earthing

[georgeveys]

Hi,

 

I have just purchased 3 REAN ma96 patch bays for routing all the audio in an installed live audio system, and wondered if I could get some advice on the best way to run the earthing. Mainly the patch bay is dealing with mic inputs from the stage, going to a digital stage box, but there are also line level signals, (master and aux outputs etc)

 

Thanks,

George

[Mixermend]

I found the following document on line which might be useful:

 

REAN MA96 wiring

 

This shows how to wire the jack sockets for 'half normal' and 'full normal' working.

 

It does actually state that every earthing situation is different 'per your specific requirements' - I think that I would avoid bus (common) earthing, so all your wiring would be confined to the individual pairs of jacks.

[paulears]

I'm pretty sure these are similar to the Rean ones I put in an install back in the late 90s - and we too were using the for mic level signals. We ended up being very careful NOT to insitute any common earthing at the panel - it was very easy to get hum. We also discovered that leaving phantom power applied seems to cause oxidisation on the contacts for the circuits that had semi permanent connections and all sorts of crackles and noise were common. We swapped them for an XLR patch, and all the problems went away. The problem panels were used elsewhere at line level and were trouble free. So I certainly would not use them again for mic level circuits.