Canare Star Quad RCA construciton methods?

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6L6

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Blue pair to the RCA pin, White pair to the RCA collar, Shield to the collar, but only on one side - and mark that side, as you may have better results with the shielded attached upstream or downstream depending on your setup. You have to experiment to see if there's a difference.
 
audionut44 said:
Wouldn't using coax be similar to connecting the shield to both ends?
Similar, but without the advantage of coax: coaxial construction. This ensures that the cable is (in the ideal case) immune to magnetic induction.

I understand the wiring of coaxial and I see what you're saying about the shield in a coax not being an actual shield but just part of the circuit.
No, the shield of a coax is both an actual shield and part of the circuit.

I can't think of a way of wiring a 4-conductor+shield cable for an unbalanced line which is not inferior in some way to using a coax.
 
If I understand H.Ott correctly, a shielded single core does not offer great interference rejection.
It is merely adequate over a narrow range of frequencies.

Shielded twisted pair and shielded twisted 4core is better at attenuating interference and I think he was also saying over a wider range of frequencies.
 
I guess it depends on what you mean by a narrow range of frequencies. Coax works from DC to a few GHz - above that it starts to get too lossy. Twisted pair works from DC to hundreds of MHz - above that it starts to accept interference? As soon as the twist length becomes commensurate with a wavelength (i.e. within 5% or so) the interference cancellation begins to degrade.
 
If I understand H.Ott correctly, a shielded single core does not offer great interference rejection.
It is merely adequate over a narrow range of frequencies.

Shielded twisted pair and shielded twisted 4core is better at attenuating interference and I think he was also saying over a wider range of frequencies.
In fact, there is probably not that much difference between the two systems: a shielded twisted pair adds one more (relatively light) layer of protection over coax, but no more: transverse balance is not really relevant for coax cables, and longitudinal balance does not differ that much beyond the screen cut-off frequency of the coax (and it can be lowered with ferrite clips or by using a magnetically shielded cable).
When a high-level, low-frequency common-mode signal is present (typical of ground loops), a balanced interface is clearly superior though, and shielding eliminates most of the effects of transverse imbalance, which is why it is favored in professional audio
 
I guess it depends on what you mean by a narrow range of frequencies. Coax works from DC to a few GHz - above that it starts to get too lossy. Twisted pair works from DC to hundreds of MHz - above that it starts to accept interference? As soon as the twist length becomes commensurate with a wavelength (i.e. within 5% or so) the interference cancellation begins to degrade.

At 4 twists to the foot you would start to worry about twist length matching frequency around 10 GHz. The capacitance of the cable will be a bit more than 300 pF /M. So signals much above 5 Mhz will start to drop.

The basic issue is that star quad cable really isn't meant for unbalanced audio connections. There are much better choices.
 
Here's what I did based on the recommendations from Canare and some helpful forum members.

Both blues to the center pin, both whites to the return, shield connected to one end only.

gunenygy.jpg


Right now the ends with the shield connected are on the upstream junction. I will experiment with the ends swapped as well. I will say that with them connected this way the noise floor is much lower than any previous cables I've used especially on the phono stage. Previously I had signal cable that uses Canare coaxial, Tara Labs Prism 22 that use their proprietary coaxial, a cable made from 22ga twisted magnet wire and various braided and twisted solid core plenum DIY cables. With the blacker background I am hearing more inner detail. In all honesty I feel that these are the best cables I've ever had in my system.

Next up, speaker cables using Canare Star Quad speaker cable.
 

6L6

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Looks wonderful!

I love those Rean connectors - they, with the black bodies, are my current standard. Inexpensive and of wonderful quality. And not too heavy. (Big, bulky, massive RCA connectors get in the way of the signal.)

Looking forward to hearing your impressions of the speaker cable.


EDIT -

Where is the "upstream junction"?
Is it at the Source end, or the Receiver end?

Look at the photo - the information to answer your question is all there.

He is using the cable from a turntable to a phonostage or similar. The shielded end of the interconnect is marked with a black band on the RCA body, and is also the end that has the visible solder on the RCA ring connection - the end with the shield floating is insulated by white heatshrink.

Knowing that, you can see that the shield end of the input interconnect is connected to the turntable and the phonostage output has the shield.
 
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I assembled the Star Quad speaker cables and I'm astonished. These are by far the best cables I've had in this system. Every single aspect of the sound has improved. Most noticeable is the 3D realism, inner detail and soundstage height. I thought my speakers disappeared before, they just melt into a gigantic stage of realism now. I will admit that I haven't had high dollar speaker cables in this setup but I have had many different DIY and store bought cables from braided, twisted, 12ga monster cable,solid core, litz, etc. the Star Quads are replacing some of the "white lightning" DIY cables as well as JW Audio cables (12ga enameled solid copper twisted) I usually switched between the two. These are really better without a doubt.
 
The electrical characteristics of this speaker cable along with the interconnects have produced the most pleasing sound I've heard from my system yet (all tube, EL34 UL PP integrated amp and an all tube RIAA phono stage). YMMV but they are working really well for me.

Early on in my audiophile/home theater hobby, before I went strictly 2 channel, I had Arcam gear and NHT VT-1.2 speakers. I remember MIT cables sounded really great on that system but then I moved to a 2A3 SET and some Tannoy Cheviots and the MITs seemed to suck the life out of that setup. It's all about synergy I suppose.
 
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