Dummy cable question: balanced vs unbalanced

[mixyguy2]

OK.......I was just talking about this online w/someone and realized I may not know as much as I thought....and the net isn't coughing up any answers.

I've read up on this so I don't need a Cables 101 per se. I get the gist of why one is better vs the other, the "guts" of them, how balanced is largely for mics, etc.

But what about other cables, like USB or MIDI? Are they balanced/unbalanced, and is it N/A anyway because they aren't carrying audio signals but digital info?

[Rolling Estonian]

USB, HDMI and optical cables are for digital, 1's and 0's only. No need for balanced. Now, if you're going to go down the rabbit hole of premium cables vs cheap ones, I'll back away slowly! LOL

M

[jlouvar]

Unbalanced cables (like guitar cables, speaker cables, etc) are two conductor cables and are okay for short runs... Balanced cables (like XLR, TRS cables) are 3 conductor cables (with shielding) and are better for longer runs. USB and HDMI cables are digital cables and are neither balanced or unbalanced.