Re: No Mic input just speaker &...
Hi Jim,
sure. In general, balanced cables and inputs/ outputs are preferred because by their nature, they cancel out any noise that manages to find it's way in to the signal.
Unbalanced cables and connections are not able to do this. However, just because you have unbalanced gear doesn't automatically make it bad, or not capable of good sound quality. The cables used on your hi-fi, will be unbalanced and I'm sure you're more than happy with the sound.
There are ways to prevent noise entering your cables though and to do that you have to be aware of where the problems might come from.
As Bj pointed out, power lines are one of the worst enemies of unbalanced connections. If you are running unbalanced cables near power lines then I would leave as much of a gap as possible (i.e. don't have them running side by side of each other) and if the wires do have to cross each other, try and make them cross at 90 degrees to each other.
... and, the longer the unbalanced cable the more likely it is to pick up noise, so keep the cables as long as you need them.
Cheers,
j