I'll admit, there has been so much engineering on the RCA connector over the years that good ones are now available. The major problem that has been addressed is the ground contact spring fingers; newer RCAs have some form of circumferential spring to keep them reasonably tight. No matter how good the connection is though, it's still unbalanced, and shield current will be on the signal return. Perhaps that's not a concern for the normal audio system, but for the ultimate in performance it seems silly to spend many thousands on sources, amps, speakers etc., yet use single-ended line-level connections.
Yes, this is one of the coalfaces. For decades I've been playing with this, I know techniques that minimise the behaviour - but I don't have the technical answers for precisely why ...
more car stuff
had a friend in college who carried a spare engine in the hatchback of his '71 Vega, as well as a case of motor oil.
Just in case he needed to replace one or more pieces of the pathetic aluminum engine.
They burned so much oil, one had to clean the spark plugs every 100 miles or so
'nuff said...any wonder GM went bankrupt??
'fraid it may look that way.............
Mea culpa ..............
had a friend in college who carried a spare engine in the hatchback of his '71 Vega, as well as a case of motor oil.
Just in case he needed to replace one or more pieces of the pathetic aluminum engine.
They burned so much oil, one had to clean the spark plugs every 100 miles or so
'nuff said...any wonder GM went bankrupt??
I thought this diagram belonged here. Sadly, it is missing an audio-specific Venn set, but it still seems apropos. http://i.imgur.com/E8qWf3o.jpg
Yes like every large venue stage show with 100+m multicore audio cables (snake), and hundreds of dimmer controlled lighting fixtures.
Exactly which ones ?. Names, makes, models please.
Dan.
As for the need of balanced lines in home audio:
I used to have a few unbalanced connections in my stereo but when I replaced my crt monitor with a flat screen I got a LOT of unwanted noise.
Adding ferrites to the connections of the flat screen helped to reduce noise a bit but since I replaced the last unbalanced lines with balanced ones there is complete silence.
With unbalanced I could also hear my fridge kicking in through the stereo but not anymore.
I used to have a few unbalanced connections in my stereo but when I replaced my crt monitor with a flat screen I got a LOT of unwanted noise.
Adding ferrites to the connections of the flat screen helped to reduce noise a bit but since I replaced the last unbalanced lines with balanced ones there is complete silence.
With unbalanced I could also hear my fridge kicking in through the stereo but not anymore.
It's a tradeoff though. A balanced stage will always generate more noise than an unbalanced stage. You have to determine if the better immunity to noise of a balanced stage outweighs the increased noise generated in the stage.
It's true you lose 3dB in NF, all things being equal; but the line levels for balanced (pro audio) are considerably higher than for unbalanced consumer audio, so typically the noise is not a problem with properly designed equipment.
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Officially the difference in line level between unbalanced (consumer) and balanced (pro) is 11.79dB.
For what its worth the unbalanced I used to have was considerably noisier than the pro gear I use now. The noise level on my QUAD amp for example was -98dB (A-weighted) at rated power while my MC2 pro amps achieve -105dB (unweighted) at any level.
For what its worth the unbalanced I used to have was considerably noisier than the pro gear I use now. The noise level on my QUAD amp for example was -98dB (A-weighted) at rated power while my MC2 pro amps achieve -105dB (unweighted) at any level.
While that is true when you examine one circuit stage versus the other, when you interconnect one real world component to another, the system using a balanced interconnect will be quieter and in some cases much quieter.
This phrase also covers people who buy into Audiophoolery and especially magic cables.
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