Hawk HXSPLU02 XLR Male to TRS Cable (2m)

Hawk HXSPLU02 XLR Male to TRS Cable (2m)

The Hawk HXSPLU02 is a 2-metre balanced audio cable with an XLR male plug at one end and a 6.35mm TRS plug at the other. It is the everyday patch lead between the two balanced connector formats of professional audio: a mixer’s XLR main output into a powered speaker’s TRS line input, a microphone preamp’s XLR output into an interface’s TRS input, a processor’s output into a desk channel. Wherever an XLR output needs to land on a TRS input, this is the single cable that does it while keeping the connection balanced.

Key features

• XLR male to 6.35mm TRS male balanced cable
• 2-metre length for racks, desks and short speaker runs
• Balanced connection between XLR and TRS equipment
• Suits mixers, interfaces, preamps and powered speakers
• One cable instead of an adapter on an existing lead

Why balanced matters on this link

Both XLR and TRS can carry a balanced signal: the audio travels in two opposite polarities inside a screen, and the receiving input cancels whatever noise the run picked up, because that noise appears identically on both conductors. The benefit is practical, not theoretical. Balanced links can run beside power cables, dimmers and computer equipment without the hum that afflicts unbalanced connections, and they stay clean over distances that would defeat a guitar-style lead. A cable like this one preserves that behaviour across the format change, which an unbalanced adapter cable would not: it would throw away the noise rejection at exactly the point where two pieces of professional equipment meet.

Direction and typical patches

XLR outputs are male and XLR inputs are female, so an XLR male plug is an output-side connector: this cable starts at an output and finishes at a TRS input. The common patches follow from that. Mixer main or auxiliary outputs feed powered speakers and monitor wedges with TRS inputs. Outboard preamps, channel strips and processors feed interface line inputs. A DI box or stagebox output lands on a desk’s TRS line input. In each case the 2-metre length suits equipment that lives in the same rack, on the same desk or at the same end of a small stage, routed with a little slack rather than stretched tight between sockets.

Handling notes

Push XLR and TRS plugs home fully; a TRS plug stopped at its first click is a classic cause of a lost channel or a crackling connection. Keep the cable out from under flight-case lids and chair castors, coil it loosely for storage, and disconnect by the plug bodies rather than the cable. If a rig develops hum after a change, check that this cable has not been swapped for an unbalanced TS lead in the same position: the plugs look similar at a glance, and the difference shows up only in the noise floor.

For the routine professional job of landing an XLR output on a TRS input, balanced and at a working 2-metre length, the HXSPLU02 is the cable to keep in the trunk.