Quote:
is harley benton ok for line level inputs and instrument level???
i don't understand what those 2 things are, ivansc mentioned them before, but i better have both i guess they are important
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There are basically 4 voltage "levels" and impedances we deal with. Three of these can be signal-inputs to a mixer, preamp, or soundcard. You need to "match" the connection:
Speaker Level - Usually several volts into 4 or 8 ohms. 10VRMS into 8 ohms is 12.5W. The same voltage in to 4 Ohms is 25W. (Lower impedance = more current & more wattage and more "load" on the circuit)
Microphone Level - About 10mV (0.01V) to 100mV (0.1V) balanced (3 wires) into about 600 Ohms. 600 Ohms is an old "traditional" standard. Most modern solid state preamps have an input impedance of 1k Ohm or more. Of course, the exact voltage from a mic depends on the loudness and the sensitivity of the mic.
The mic input on your regular consumer-soundcard is higher-impedance (maybe 5K-10k Ohms), and unbalanced, but still too-low impedance for a guitar/bass. It's the wrong interface for studio/performance mics and is only good for communication & gaming "computer" microphones. And, consumer soundcard mic inputs are often noisy and low-quality.
Line Level - About 1V into about 10k-100k Ohms*. The signal that comes out of a mixer, preamp, or the audio-out of your TV is line level. Professional line-level connections are balanced (XLR connectors), and consumer line-level connectors are unbalanced (RCA connectors).
Sometimes a 1/4" TS (2-conductor) connector is used for unbalanced connections and a 1/4" TRS (3-conductor) connector is sometimes used for balanced connections. Many preamps/interfaces have TRS connections, but will accept either TS or TRS. Some have Neutrik connectors that accept XLR, TS or TRS.
Again traditionally, professional line-level is 600 Ohms. But, 10K Ohms or more on the input is now common, with output impedances of less than 600 Ohms. (Most modern equipment doesn't use audio transformers, so we don't "match" impedance... We normally have a low output-impedance going to a high input-impedance.)
The headphone output from a soundcard is approximately line-level, and it can be connected to a line-level input. But it also has the capability of driving a lower-impedance headphone load (typically 32-64 Ohms).
Instrument Level -. About 100mV to 1V or more, unbalanced (2-wire) into 1 Meg Ohm or more (with a 1/4" TS connector, of course).
If you connect a guitar/bass into a line-input (or microphone) input, it will "work" but the load impedance will be too low and it "drags-down" the voltage and the tone can be messed-up.
* If you look-up "line level", there are exact standards for dBV (referenced to 1V) and dBmW (referenced to 1mW into 600 ohms). But, I say "about", because in the real world, we have volume/level controls, and since we don't listen to test-tones, the voice & music signals/voltages jump all over the place.
Linear Mode
