Hi friends,
I have upgraded a preamp with different (excellent) parts, each of these have provided a huge improvement in sound.
Now I would like to change the original coaxial cable, going from the preamp mainboard to the stepped volume attenuators, by a very good coax. (note that there is one coaxial for each channel, carrying [ground + signal])
What your recommendations are: I do not know many good coaxial cables...
Thank you !
I have upgraded a preamp with different (excellent) parts, each of these have provided a huge improvement in sound.
Now I would like to change the original coaxial cable, going from the preamp mainboard to the stepped volume attenuators, by a very good coax. (note that there is one coaxial for each channel, carrying [ground + signal])
What your recommendations are: I do not know many good coaxial cables...
Thank you !
Belden RG-405 is a good silver plated copper solid core with teflon insulation. and then depends on your budget, vhaudio make a nice one with upocc copper in teflon with spc and foil shield. you dont have to get 75ohm cable though, probably someone will come in here and tell you you should, but 75ohm is generally more suitable for external digital interconnects. imo the 50 ohm cables are more suitable for internal connections, also there is a larger range of high quality teflon insulated RF grade 50 ohms cables. look out for some nice milspec nos stuff too with 100% double spc shield.
dont bother with the furutech stuff here. are these cables terminated with resistors for impedance matching?
dont bother with the furutech stuff here. are these cables terminated with resistors for impedance matching?
I have had a look at the vhaudio site, but I have not seen the coax you talk about: there are many ohno cables but I have seen no coax... Can you give me the name of the cable you talk about ?
I fully agree...
if you have some URL to give me, I am interested...
Will have a look at it: I already have an equivalent cable, with Teflon insulation and silver plated copper, but it is not a solid core design, it is a multiconductors design. Do you believe that solid core is preferable over multistrand ???
Thanks
well the vhaudio pulsar Cu is 75r, but still very good, its also now available in silver upocc, but at a difference of 100 dollars per meter vs the Cu one. depends how covvitted to the cause you are 
i cannot recommend the silver as i have not tried it, though i have used the copper one to great effect.
VH Audio - Wire and Cable
sorry you'll have to search through for the nos stuff, it comes and goes. there was even some available on here for a while in the vendors area. i always use solid core over stranded unless the cable has to move around a great deal. i just ran out of some nos i score as a gift, it was 13awg and i used it happily for shielded internal power connections and speaker outputs.
i cannot recommend the silver as i have not tried it, though i have used the copper one to great effect.VH Audio - Wire and Cable
sorry you'll have to search through for the nos stuff, it comes and goes. there was even some available on here for a while in the vendors area. i always use solid core over stranded unless the cable has to move around a great deal. i just ran out of some nos i score as a gift, it was 13awg and i used it happily for shielded internal power connections and speaker outputs.
Thanks ! the problem with the Ag is not the price but the fact that I do not believe that Ag is the best choice in a preamp: I have been disappointed with Ag before, because it generates a lack of realism in the reproduction... I believe I will go to the Copper version, I feel more confident...even if it is not an Oxygen Free Copper version...
Regarding the Belden, is there anybody on this forum having already used it in a preamp ?
huh, occ is a step beyond ofc, not beneath it. ive found ag works well in some systems and not in others, to make such a general statement as yours is a bit reductionist imo. price would stop me in this instance, because i have all the equipment i need to make coax using my own wire (4 different sizes of ptfe tubing that slide one over the other and spc braid) but the coper is pretty reasonable so i just buy it
What does the characteristic impedance of a coaxial cable have to do with audio frequencies, especially given the high impedances involved at the input to the amplifier, and the very short lengths involved ?
All you need is high quality ,low capacitance , well screened cable of a coaxial type construction, and copper wire inner conductor(s).
SandyK
All you need is high quality ,low capacitance , well screened cable of a coaxial type construction, and copper wire inner conductor(s).
SandyK
Why would you think 50 ohm cable is better for running 'non-terminated'? I would think you'd be interested in the amount of capacitance per foot as that is going to form a low pass filter combined with your output resistance. Looking at Belden 8219 50 ohm coax has 25.5 pF /ft vs 1505F 75 ohm coax at 17.5 pF/ft. It's not a massive difference but it is opposite what I'd expect you to be concerned about.
RG-405 comes up 'No products found matching criteria.'.
G²
I hate to think of people paying 100$ a metre for coax for internal preamp wiring, but i suppose some will.
It would be nice to see the most significant aspects considered:.
ease of use (semi rigid coax might have 18ghz bandwidth but is a mongrel to work),
robustness,
sensible capacitance and
decent screening.
50 / 75 ohm coax? This is irrelevant at audio frequencies.
Gold vs silver - really aesthetics.
Solid core vs stranded - is an issue of ease of workability and perhaps more importantly robustness.
Capacitance is unlikely to be relevant except in an extraordinarily badly designed system - or maybe very high impedance valve design (though i would class this as poor )
decent screening is a real issue with cheap coax. Not only is some "coax" little more than two wires loosely bound in a sheath, the ground on some is tiny.
Sorry to poo poo the rf coax part - it is just no more relevant than the colour.
It would be nice to see the most significant aspects considered:.
ease of use (semi rigid coax might have 18ghz bandwidth but is a mongrel to work),
robustness,
sensible capacitance and
decent screening.
50 / 75 ohm coax? This is irrelevant at audio frequencies.
Gold vs silver - really aesthetics.
Solid core vs stranded - is an issue of ease of workability and perhaps more importantly robustness.
Capacitance is unlikely to be relevant except in an extraordinarily badly designed system - or maybe very high impedance valve design (though i would class this as poor )
decent screening is a real issue with cheap coax. Not only is some "coax" little more than two wires loosely bound in a sheath, the ground on some is tiny.
Sorry to poo poo the rf coax part - it is just no more relevant than the colour.
where did i say that? i only asked if he had a mechanism, or was already terminating it. if you actually read my post instead of picking parts to argue with i mentioned that this was probably not as important with his application and that 75r coax (for digital) was primarily designed for external digital interconnects and internal digital was primarily 50r, all of this wrt digital. termination and impedance is just as important for analogue interconnects, you need only look at the work of Erno Borbely to see examples of it. i fully agree that the pricing of the 100 a meter is a bit over the top and did not recommend it, my use of silver in these situations with coax of my own making is a matter of consistency and because i can and have found good results; i'm not going to get into that with you.
in fact i clearly stated that someone was probably going to come in here and say that he should be using 75r coax for audio, even though we were talking analogue.
wrt not getting any hits; you are not looking hard enough
i'm only using it for power and sense, digital or 2 x mini coax also twisted sometimes for low level signal. that vhaudio copper one is pretty thin and allows this. but erno and a number of people on here seem to dig it for low level analogue. i have tried it all over, but i usually cant be assed to do it all the way through due to extra effort in grounding and end up with twisted pair, sometimes shielded if im in the mood for overkill or having a neat fit
all part of my audiopsychosis
all part of my audiopsychosis
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This thread is no doubt on it's way to a "do cables make a difference", or whatever, pile of chit chat crap, type of "discussion". Is that what we want to be reading here? Is this what you guy's that "know" want to be posting here?
BTW, I use the tan colored, .1", teflon insulated, 18pF/", 50ohm coax for small signal SE stuff.
otherwise, I twist
BTW, I use the tan colored, .1", teflon insulated, 18pF/", 50ohm coax for small signal SE stuff.
otherwise, I twist
i only 'know' what works for me, but i agree its really not the sort of thread that needs to be in this section and was a touch confused at the first post. just happens i bought a fair few different types recently for a measurement amp i built, so i chimed in and then someone took my comments out of context so i tried to explain myself when i probably should have just ignored it.
tan?? really?, dont you find that muddies the sound? i prefer clear teflon or black for that black background
tan?? really?, dont you find that muddies the sound? i prefer clear teflon or black for that black background
Awww, qusp..... you beat me to it....! (Actually, I prefer the red--I think it makes the electrons go thru it faster.....)
what can i say it was begging for it
one problem i find with all this coax no matter the price, is that because ground and signal are inseparable, it makes it difficult, or at least problematic to have the ground lines running down hill without effecting electron flow through the signal lines....this is very important for small signals.
ok, i'm passing the thread over, anyone else wanna have a go before the mods move it?
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