I´d say, they think there must be other reasons too,as they wrote:
"In fact, long before we controlled for conductor directionality, AudioQuest interconnects were also controlled for direction based on the relationship of shield to ground."
The part with the "conductor directionality" isn´t open to interpretation or am i mistaken?
No, I do not disagree. Shielding one end only connected is for a reason as Whitlock said.
Jn
BTW, several encoder vendors have specific shielding requirements for their long encoder runs. It is a double shield technique, coaxial shields.
But only one of them is connected to ground at both ends. One is connected only at the receiver. The inner shield does not connect at the encoder, the outer shield is connected at both.
The theory: The inner shield is an electrostatic shield. If this were the only shield, the different potential between grounds would show up as common mode noise in the differential pair signal.
The outer shield connects to ground at both ends. Any ground current will travel the shield, and the shield will try to limit the common mode voltage excursion. The beauty of this system is that there is no magnetic field within the outer shield as it is cylindrical. So it prevents any coupling to the inner signal wires, and further reduces the voltage potential end to end that the electrostatic shield protects against.
The down side to this is...I typically have 4 to 6 of them running 100 feet from rack to equipment. While each cable protects it's internal signals from shield currents, nothing can protect the other cables from the external field of the shield currents. So the design from the vendor falls apart once multiple devices are used.
jn
But only one of them is connected to ground at both ends. One is connected only at the receiver. The inner shield does not connect at the encoder, the outer shield is connected at both.
The theory: The inner shield is an electrostatic shield. If this were the only shield, the different potential between grounds would show up as common mode noise in the differential pair signal.
The outer shield connects to ground at both ends. Any ground current will travel the shield, and the shield will try to limit the common mode voltage excursion. The beauty of this system is that there is no magnetic field within the outer shield as it is cylindrical. So it prevents any coupling to the inner signal wires, and further reduces the voltage potential end to end that the electrostatic shield protects against.
The down side to this is...I typically have 4 to 6 of them running 100 feet from rack to equipment. While each cable protects it's internal signals from shield currents, nothing can protect the other cables from the external field of the shield currents. So the design from the vendor falls apart once multiple devices are used.
jn
Someone got triggered. It's a telltale sign.The replication crisis in science (which is all about false positives) is surely just fabricated to "discredit double blind test" .......
Further, i guess you wanted to blame the "false negatives" narrative, but good ol´ Ioannidis had also a lot to say about underpowered experiments. Unfortunately, if the fundamentalism is just based on a collection of ancedotes from Peter Aczel, you most probably will never know such informations....
I think it's pretty well known why; take for example a cable connecting your turntable MC to your MC single ended input preamp. You would need a balanced to single ended cable, and you do this by connecting the shield to one of the two conductors, at the MC preamp end; you connect the two conductors to the MC at the turntable end. Such a cable is legitimately "directional" and should be marked accordingly with e.g. an arrow, pointing from the turntable end to the MC preamp end. Connect it the other way around and you'll get a world of hum.
Since such a cable won't show anything special on the outside, except the arrow, innocent people took this as a "directional cable" and snake oil merchants had no hesitation (and/or shame) to make a step forward and promote a general cable directionality property.
I needed a longer interconnect between my Garrard turntable and Rogers amplifier.
The one I sent away for is inexpensive, but employs screened cable of a reasonable diameter and nicely soldered to gold plated, metal RCA plugs.
It also had arrows on it!
Now, I don't believe that such an interconnect has directional properties, but I just had to ensure the arrows pointed in the direction of the amplifier!
Why don't I have the courage of my convictions?!
The one I sent away for is inexpensive, but employs screened cable of a reasonable diameter and nicely soldered to gold plated, metal RCA plugs.
It also had arrows on it!
Now, I don't believe that such an interconnect has directional properties, but I just had to ensure the arrows pointed in the direction of the amplifier!
Why don't I have the courage of my convictions?!
It's like falling out of an airplane at 30 thousand feet without a parachute. Flap your arms and try to fly. If it makes no difference, your no worse off.Now, I don't believe that such an interconnect has directional properties, but I just had to ensure the arrows pointed in the direction of the amplifier!
Why don't I have the courage of my convictions?!
jn
I needed a longer interconnect between my Garrard turntable and Rogers amplifier.
The one I sent away for is inexpensive, but employs screened cable of a reasonable diameter and nicely soldered to gold plated, metal RCA plugs.
It also had arrows on it!
Now, I don't believe that such an interconnect has directional properties, but I just had to ensure the arrows pointed in the direction of the amplifier!
Why don't I have the courage of my convictions?!
If for no other reason than a "discerning" listener upon inspecting your setupmay pronounce, "... I KNEW I heard something- you've got these cables pointed the wrong direction!"
In all seriousness, there was a cable company that made "directional" cables for automotive use some 20 years ago. We (working as an installer at the time) all laughed, and just threw them in the cars however they landed. Then we started having returns... with noise issues... in those cables... but only the ones "pointed the wrong way"...
Turns out the manufacturer had a very strange termination of shields to conductors and instead of acting as a noise "shield", it acted as "noise funnel".
I've learned not to be dogmatically dismissive about much... humble pie made with fresh crow is unappealing.
I always seem to be in a bit of a flap!
P.S. I normally construct my own interconnects, but in this case it was cheaper to buy the ready made Chinese interconnect than to buy four individual RCA plugs and a length of screened cable of equivalent quality!
Ha! Ha!
I wish someone/anyone would come and inspect my setup - diy audio can be such a lonely hobby!
Ha! Ha!
I wish someone/anyone would come and inspect my setup - diy audio can be such a lonely hobby!
I'd be happy to....but you have to pay shipping both ways..
Jn
I'd be honoured to have your erudite company, but do you really think that a man who has to resort to buying cheap Chinese interconnects can afford the cost of transatlantic air flights?I'd be happy to....but you have to pay shipping both ways..
Oddly the cable that came with mine has 3 ground straps at the preamp end. You have STP for each channel with the shield for left and right having their own ground lug then the third I assume is tonearm ground. I've never bothered confirming this. So it's directional but has different connectors on each end so can't be reversed. The cable would make a lot more sense with XLRs on tho
Oddly the cable that came with mine has 3 ground straps at the preamp end. You have STP for each channel with the shield for left and right having their own ground lug then the third I assume is tonearm ground. I've never bothered confirming this. So it's directional but has different connectors on each end so can't be reversed. The cable would make a lot more sense with XLRs on tho
You cable is for both channels, and has also a wire for grounding the TT to the preamp chassis. I described a cable for a single channel only. Actually I have a piece of shielded cable that is like a double stereo cable, each channel with it's own shielding, and a wire in between good for grounding the TT chassis. A total of 7 conductors.
Good it has different connectors; I've seen such cables with RCS at both ends, hence the risk for reversing.
XLR? Never seen a MM/MC preamp with XLR input, much less a TT. I've seen in a surplus store mini-XLR connectors, very nice and not much bigger than a RCA. Don't know why they never picked up for the home audio market, only those horrible big pro XLRs are used.
<snip>
It also had arrows on it!
Now, I don't believe that such an interconnect has directional properties, but I just had to ensure the arrows pointed in the direction of the amplifier!
Why don't I have the courage of my convictions?!
I don´t know if the information was already posted, but in case that you bought a STP construction it might be that the arrows are justified due to the shield connection......
You only have to check what the arrow direction means wrt the shield connection.
I guess you´ve seen Galu´s post that i´ve cited. I´m not sure, but do you think he realized that there could be justification for the directionality (arrow) and that it would be a good idea, to use the shield connect to ground at the preamplifier input? (in case of an ordinary ungrounded phono system)
(And of course to find out - if it is a STP - which arrow parts corresponds to the shield connection)?
- Status
- This old topic is closed. If you want to reopen this topic, contact a moderator using the "Report Post" button.