Can someone tell me what kind of a cable this is? I wanted to make some Interconnect RCA Cables, I've read so many guides, some with 2 conductors, others 4, and as I asked the salesperson for a 4 conductor cable, they said they did not have any, instead he gave me this 5 conductor wire with 1 wire that looks like it's shielded from the rest. The others don't appear to be shielded at all. Now the guides tell me that I should solder 1 or 1 set of conductors to the cup or middle pin in the rca plug and another set to the ground including the shielding, but only on 1 end (usually the source), do same on the other end but cut off the shield entirely. This cable just confuses me, should I just group together the 4 unshielded conductors(blue, green, yellow, red) and make it the positive? Then use the White wire with the shield as the ground following the the ground/drain on one end rule?
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Size comparison to a PC SATA Cable
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Might be quicker and cheaper to just buy a ready-made interconnect cable. Not DIY, but unless you need a specific non-standard length there is not much point in making interconnects. No homemade cable will beat ordinary decent commercial cable, and merely soldering on the ends is hardly a creative activity.
Of course, if you want to modify the sound of your system you can make a cable which encourages RF ingress or is microphonic.
Of course, if you want to modify the sound of your system you can make a cable which encourages RF ingress or is microphonic.
Attaching a cable shield at one end is like using a chocolate fire guard
especially for RCA, its a completely weird recommendation, given RCA only has signal and ground, so its not like only connecting one end of the shield does anything at all except make the shield less effective.
in this case specifically, given the shield..isnt actually surrounding everything anyway… its pretty oddball for an RCA
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Thanks guys, I'm setting this cable aside now.
Anyway, trying to make an interconnect cable for me is something new. I have not soldered anything before in my life so consider this as a beginner's step.
The guides I've been looking at are here:
http://diyaudioprojects.com/Power/DIY-Shielded-RCA-Interconnect-Cables/
http://www.platenspeler.com/diy/cabling/uk_4play_1.php
http://diyaudioprojects.com/Power/diySilver/
Anyway, trying to make an interconnect cable for me is something new. I have not soldered anything before in my life so consider this as a beginner's step.
The guides I've been looking at are here:
http://diyaudioprojects.com/Power/DIY-Shielded-RCA-Interconnect-Cables/
http://www.platenspeler.com/diy/cabling/uk_4play_1.php
http://diyaudioprojects.com/Power/diySilver/
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Ignore the nonsense about braided wire (encourages RF to get in) and silver (unnecessary). Your first link is OK, in the sense that it doesn't actually spout much nonsense - maybe overly expensive, but that is merely a matter of taste.
Just buy some reasonable commercial quality screened cable, and good quality plugs. Learn to solder - this is by far the most important part of the exercise. A good joint with cheap components will always sound much better then a bad joint with the most expensive components in the world.
Audio interconnects really are simple. I suspect that some people like to think they are complicated as a sort of displacement activity: they can't do electronics so do cables instead. You can safely ignore what such people say.
Just buy some reasonable commercial quality screened cable, and good quality plugs. Learn to solder - this is by far the most important part of the exercise. A good joint with cheap components will always sound much better then a bad joint with the most expensive components in the world.
Audio interconnects really are simple. I suspect that some people like to think they are complicated as a sort of displacement activity: they can't do electronics so do cables instead. You can safely ignore what such people say.
The cables I need are really just short interconnects from DAC to AMP, I have so many different cables lying around given to me by a friend who sold all his professional and band equipment, so I have an assortment of mic & guitar cables. So I got the cables, I got the plugs, my final concern now is just the shield, what do I do with it. So many contradicting ideas. Solder it on both ends? Solder on Source end only? or not to solder them at all.
RCA combines shield and signal return. For a normal coax cable there is no problem: inner to inner, and outer to outer. For a shielded twisted pair it gets more complicated as the plugs force you to connect conductors which the cable keeps separate. The shield must be connected to outer at one end; I'm not sure what is best for the other end. Otherswill comment. For simplicity just stick to coax for short connections.
Never connect shield on both the ends.
http://www.proaudio-technik.de/item?page=1138462801&pkey=body.downloads&item=2
Gajanan Phadte
http://www.proaudio-technik.de/item?page=1138462801&pkey=body.downloads&item=2
Gajanan Phadte
whatever you do, realise that the signal will need a pair of lines, one for the signal and another for return to complete the circuit...
you can work your way basing from these guidelines...
this always bends my mind, its RCA, there is only 2 terminals, no dedicated shield connection, there is continuity between the shield and ground at both ends whether you connect the shield at both ends or not. by connecting one end only, all you do is make the shield less effective, it doesnt magically mean there is no continuity and noise will just dribble out into ground at the connected end.
It boggles my mind how much misinformation and outright BS circulates around our hobby when it comes to interconnects, lots of claims, little evidence, you're just supposed be "believe" I guess.
I agree with DF96 here - the best solution is just go buy some decent quality interconnects somewhere, it's difficult to improve on the quality of commercially supplied units by building your own. So unless there is some compelling reason, like specific length requirements or something, forget building your own until you gain more experience working with components like these.
Mike
- is really bad advice for someone using simple single conductor with a shield, in that case both ends of the shield MUST be connected to ground or you'll get a really loud humming noise and litte actual signal through. If you're using multi-conductor shielded, twisted pair surrounded by a shield for example, then the shield should be connected at one end only with the ground connection made through one of the twisde pair wires, then the end the shield is connected to usually will be connected to the signal source for minimum noise.
I agree with DF96 here - the best solution is just go buy some decent quality interconnects somewhere, it's difficult to improve on the quality of commercially supplied units by building your own. So unless there is some compelling reason, like specific length requirements or something, forget building your own until you gain more experience working with components like these.
Mike
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