Balanced vs Unbalanced cable question

I need to connect an unbalanced 1/4in output from my mixer to a balanced 1/4in input on my Echo MiaMIDI soundcard.

Given that I don't want to solder fancy special cables or I don't want to buy some fancy Line Shifter thingy, should I use a balanced cable, an unbalanced cable, or does it even matter?

thanks,
-dave

There would be no purpose to using balanced cables in a mixed environment (one balanced and one unbalanced piece of gear).

In fact, as I've been researching this (in search of a noiseless studio), I've found a few places that say specifically NOT to use balanced cables when connecting between a balanced and unbalanced connection... use unbalanced instead (EMU is the source here... in the 1616 manual which can be downloaded from their site). Perhaps someone more experienced than I could explain if and why (I'm curious myself)?

Here's what EMU says about it:
"WARNING: Do NOT use balanced audio cables when connecting balanced outputs to unbalanced inputs. Doing so can increase noise level and introduce hum. Use balanced cables ONLY if you are connecting balanced inputs to balanced outputs."

They seem to yell about it, so...

In any event, as balanced cables need both sides to be balanced to work, whether it is dangerous or not is mostly academic... there wouldn't be anything to gain by using balanced cables in that setup.

Get well shielded, unbalanced cables (probably for less money).

Edited to add:
I see wogg has given the info I was wondering about... thanks to wogg for that.

Thanks for the great responses. While I knew it was 'okay' to use either cable to make the connection, I couldn't find anything written on what 'should' be used. Ya'll answered that very question.

thanks again,
-dave

ORIGINAL: ohhey

... for some unknown reason the unbalanced outputs sounded better. There was no technical reason why that should have been true it just was. ...

That's because they used an inexpensive, noisy OpAmp to balance the signal. (pardon the spam) I sell the world's best sounding balancing box, but it's $495 (for six channels), and it took extensive design work to make this sound good.

There are many proponents of a fully single-ended (un-balanced) audio and power flow in a recording studio. The real problem, though, is when you need to mix and match un-balanced and balanced audio.

When going from a balanced out to a unbalanced input, I would suggest NOT using an unbalanced cable. Most manufacturers recomend leaving the negative unconnected (on the outputs) instead of shorting it to ground. A pretty good explanation from Rane:

This is not true for impedance balanced outputs, like Mackie, or true transformer outputs. In these cases you want to short the unused output to ground.

So, the point of all this is you have to read the manual (what a concept) for all your equipment to know how to use it.

Regards,
David