RapcoHorizon TDIBLOX Consumer to Pro Audio Interface

The Horizon TDIBLOX Tape Deck Interface lets you connect unbalanced sources, such as laptops, MP3 players, CD players, and tape decks with stereo RCA outputs to a mic-level mono input on a PA mixer.

The Horizon TDIBLOX has RCA plugs that connect directly to your laptop soundcard or other RCA-out equipped playback device and provides mono summing operation, which maintains the proper balance of your stereo mix while protecting your playback device from accidental exposure to phantom power and other possible dangers (see below). Housed in a compact and durable aluminum box, it has an XLR output and a rotary potentiometer that provides volume control.


Why you need the TDIBLOX:
If you're connecting an unbalanced stereo source to a mic-level input on a console, accidental exposure to phantom power can burn out the motherboard of a laptop or fry your playback device. Balancing the signal makes the playback unit "invisible" to phantom power.

Another reason you need the TDIBLOX is for its ability to sum to mono. Simply using a Y-connector cable from stereo into one signal will not work. Summing a stereo signal to mono via a Y connector can cause the unbalanced stereo outputs of of your playback device to drive one another, which in a best-case scenario, will cause loss of signal strength, and in worst-case, will
cause a short between the outputs and damage the unit. Also, due to improper summing, parts of your stereo mix will be lost.