The Sound Of Ferrite...
Theory/specs say that this should not occur, but in my experience this effect is quite audible, and unpleasantly so.
Dan.
That's my experience also...clip-on ferrites add a 'hardness' that does not belong, whether added to power, line level or speaker cables.
Theory/specs say that this should not occur, but in my experience this effect is quite audible, and unpleasantly so.
Dan.
RFI pickup in speaker cables - an alternative to cables made with "unobtainium"
Been reviewing speaker cable shootouts and noticing the characteristic capacitance of some of the esoteric cables. Goertz, a respected name in the industry, has a capacitance of about 500 pf/ft. A nine foot length of it would present about 4500 pf to the amplifier. I decided to try placing that capacitance (closest at hand was .0047 uf/ 4700 pf), across the amplifier output terminals, using a common 600v ceramic disc capacitor. The improvement in my system was astonishing .. clean bass, great definition across the board, great transient performance, and a much better sense of being in the same "space" as the original performance ... with either classical music or home theater. I then recalled that this was an old fix for RFI in speaker lines .. using a bypass capacitor to keep the RFI out of the amplifier's output feedback loops. In my city, there are at least four 4 megawatt TV stations and many others contributing to RF pollution. I'm going to try this with 100 pf capacitors (which is the capacitance of some other esoteric cables)to see if I get the same results. I'm still going to build some DIY speaker cables. But I don't expect much more improvement.
Been reviewing speaker cable shootouts and noticing the characteristic capacitance of some of the esoteric cables. Goertz, a respected name in the industry, has a capacitance of about 500 pf/ft. A nine foot length of it would present about 4500 pf to the amplifier. I decided to try placing that capacitance (closest at hand was .0047 uf/ 4700 pf), across the amplifier output terminals, using a common 600v ceramic disc capacitor. The improvement in my system was astonishing .. clean bass, great definition across the board, great transient performance, and a much better sense of being in the same "space" as the original performance ... with either classical music or home theater. I then recalled that this was an old fix for RFI in speaker lines .. using a bypass capacitor to keep the RFI out of the amplifier's output feedback loops. In my city, there are at least four 4 megawatt TV stations and many others contributing to RF pollution. I'm going to try this with 100 pf capacitors (which is the capacitance of some other esoteric cables)to see if I get the same results. I'm still going to build some DIY speaker cables. But I don't expect much more improvement.
I think this may be why lots of people feel that woven cat5/6 computer cable makes an improvement to their system, it has a larger capacitance than most. It made mine sound dull but I had 2 x 8 metre runs and at that time it was a tube amp I was using. Different cable type made a more noticeable difference with that amp than any other I have had and in the end I used DMN solid core cables which tightened up the loose bass a bit.
I did not like the DMN cable on any solid state amp I tried it with, it reduced bass power and it is very thin so quite fragile.
I live in the middle of nowhere so RF pollution is not an issue for me.
I did not like the DMN cable on any solid state amp I tried it with, it reduced bass power and it is very thin so quite fragile.
I live in the middle of nowhere so RF pollution is not an issue for me.
Tried several alternative connections. The best so far has been a .01 mfd ceramic capacitor across the speaker terminals at the speaker end of the cables. I can't calculate what this has done to the load the amplifier sees. But detail and imaging have also improved. Not considering the capacitance per foot of the cable, or the reactance values of the speaker system itself, this value would be 318 ohms at 50 kHz. ... more than 50X the load impedance. But at mid-range of the TV bands, it's a short circuit. My speaker cables are about 5 meters long.
If 1nF across a speaker affects bass then it could be either inducing or preventing HF oscillation. Alternatively, it is a high-K ceramic and causing distortion which is being misheard as better definition. Or it is increasing RF pickup - at the amp end it would reduce pickup but at the speaker end it could increase it.
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