Balanced audio out

[otobmark]

VP8000 has speaker +/- audio and i'm sure tying to ground would do damage. Lately I've been building cables for data boxes (tnc) and some other remote audio gear. I had several rugged radio headsets I used for racing which had Kenwood adapter cables (Used with TK390's originally). I was going to use them with my VP8000 until I remembered the balanced audio (unlike my APX radios). I opened up the connector (14pin side connector) and to my surprise I found a PCB. It "seems" to do transistor PTT, pad MSW/SSW pins and isolate the balanced audio out. Uploaded image of PCB to AI and it also identified the same functions. Question is should I trust it? I don't think of rugged radio as a upper tier vendor though they are popular headset among professional race teams. I have only done ohm meter probing which indicated that the functions I mentioned had no direct path to ground. Maybe I'm paranoid because I seem to recall a post about a dealer blowing up a VP8000 with a RSM--an OTTO I think, which is a very high end RSM.
I'm used to balanced audio since my commercial HF radios all have it (and Harris Mil gear) and I use isolation transformers to connect to unbalanced audio. If the rugged radio adapter cable is solid, they would be a relatively cheap and certainly convenient donor for my gear. Any ideas about any of this or alternate strategies?

 

[jeepsandradios]

Does Kenwood sell an adapter already ? May check around for commercial products already out there. Over the years I've used David Clark, Rugged Radio, Racing Electronis, and a few other not name brand and most had radio specific cables. Alot of companies will make custom cables if you know what you need.

 

[otobmark]

Well Rugged no longer lists cables for 14 pin kenwood/viking radios (or 12pin motorola). I can find no headset manufacturer that mentions the balanced audio situation or transistor PTT. Some may do it but not mentioned on their websites. When I see all the companies offering RSM and headsets for these kenwood radios I wonder if it is russian roulette everytime you use one? I notice in my KMC70 RSM there is no circuitry in the connector itself but given the cable is 14 wire I suppose all the circuitry is in the actual mic. Until now I’ve really been reckless concerning audio connections on my Kenwoods and wonder why I haven’t blown something up before?