Hi All, I am looking for AC power cables with shielding and a good bit of insulation so that they can lay next to source interconnects with minimal interference. I know the best solution is to avoid running interconnects and power in parallel, but sometimes furniture, room layout and practicality conspire against us.
The affordable cable I've found with good insultation also seems to have shielding with large gaps. Depicted below. Is this a problem? Is this shielding doing any good? Would I be better off just getting a regular shielded power cable and putting some hose/tubing around it to force some distance between the AC power and interconnects?
Thanks,
Joe
The affordable cable I've found with good insultation also seems to have shielding with large gaps. Depicted below. Is this a problem? Is this shielding doing any good? Would I be better off just getting a regular shielded power cable and putting some hose/tubing around it to force some distance between the AC power and interconnects?
Thanks,
Joe
I want to feel better about my mess of wires. I'm hoping that by adding some shielding and insulation to AC power cables I can alleviate some concern over them interfering in some way with my signal cables. I have not done any testing, but I need a couple additional power cables anyway so I'm looking at the cheap options.
In my backroom where I have more flexibility and fewer inputs, I just keep power cables and interconnects separate and have not thought twice about it.
In my backroom where I have more flexibility and fewer inputs, I just keep power cables and interconnects separate and have not thought twice about it.
In our amplifiers we twist and sometimes shield our power cables and separate them from our signal wires. This seems to be widely accepted best practice. Why would it be any different outside our amplifiers?
I'm a fan of Lapp Olflex Classic 110 CY cable. Really well made and excellent shielding. I started using it to counteract interference back in the analogue video days. Nowadays I use it primarily for its quality when making cables to a specific length. As for its benefit to audio I can't comment.
I've lost count of the ground loop issues I've helped people hunt down over the years. Can't remember that electrostatic coupling from the mains cord ever was an issue.
I mean, what would it even do?
You get some electrostatic coupling from mains to signal ground, maybe a few pF worth. (You wouldn't be literally wrapping the audio cables round the power cord, would you?)
You see, capacitive coupling over the mains transformers in a system alone is likely to be in the dozens or hundreds of pF, even with shield windings in transformers.
So you might see a bit more hum with inputs open if audio ground is floating without a single ground connection in the entire system. So it's probably advisable to have one of these (and I mean exactly one). But other than that?
If you've got balanced interconnects between IEC Class I devices, any capacitive coupling would be promptly drained to PE anyway (not to mention the effect of cable and input CMRR)... which is also running within the mains cord and provides some shielding already.
Funnily enough, it is capacitive coupling in the mains wiring (between L/N and PE) that tends to be responsible for the device ground potential differences commonly making ground loop issues audible.
Your signal cables are supposed to be already shielded, if good quality.
If You just hear pure music this way, leave power & signal cables spaced apart.
I wonder why amp manufacturers don't use shielded power cables ? Even the Zillion dollar ones with wired with gold..
What about the whole house wiring, RF / WIFI radiation and the like ?
Your computers & power bricks are RF oscillators.
Even with steel enclosures, shielded in & out cables You can't avoid this.
You have to use shielding & filtering.
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Actually, I did exactly that to eliminate a ground loop in a system where the unbalanced source was 100 feet from the power amplifier.
It's detailed in my gallery here.
Jn
At mains and audio frequencies those gaps aren't likely to be an issue, you
have an effective Faraday cage.
Once up at RF frequencies you will see leakage - expensive RF coax tries to have the minimum of gap, or uses a solid foil sheath.
Note however that such screening won't stop magnetic field leakage, so unless the mains cable is twisted pair/triple there can still be leakage of mains frequency to nearby cables, especially if untwisted twin-pair, and large mains currents are flowing.
Again, another "worry" about cables and potential signal interferences.
Look, As I already mentioned, I've got loads of cables behind my component system.
A turntable, receiver, cassette deck, CD player, reel-to-reel, and a powered tape/source switching box with SRS built in.
ALL in the same cabinet, with ALL those cords (power/signal) in a mess of confusion behind them.
I hook them up, and shove the component into the shelf, not obsessing over where or how they are arranged.
And mind you, the shielded signal/RCA cables are not some fancy brand - just your normal grey or black RCA interconnects.
At max volume, not a PEEP of noise comes from the speakers or headphones.
No hum, no "other source" tiny signal....... nothing!
Has the internet and all its wonders made some people obsess over such a "nothing happening"?
Like snake oil obsessions and worries...... pure BS.
Look, As I already mentioned, I've got loads of cables behind my component system.
A turntable, receiver, cassette deck, CD player, reel-to-reel, and a powered tape/source switching box with SRS built in.
ALL in the same cabinet, with ALL those cords (power/signal) in a mess of confusion behind them.
I hook them up, and shove the component into the shelf, not obsessing over where or how they are arranged.
And mind you, the shielded signal/RCA cables are not some fancy brand - just your normal grey or black RCA interconnects.
At max volume, not a PEEP of noise comes from the speakers or headphones.
No hum, no "other source" tiny signal....... nothing!
Has the internet and all its wonders made some people obsess over such a "nothing happening"?
Like snake oil obsessions and worries...... pure BS.
Well I appreciate your practical experience, but I don't think "the internet" is necessarily the source of all these types of worries. And are these worries potentially overblown, sure, but "pure BS", I don't think so. Crosstalk is measurable and predictable. These worries can originate from real world phenomenon and the question is, are common practices sufficient to mediate these phenomenon and to what extent do they actually reach your ears?
Today my question was basically, how much shielding is enough? It appears that shielding on interconnects is generally sufficient to reduce interference from electric fields and that magnetic fields and ground loop arrangement should be investigated first as a source of noise before turning to additional shielding.
@OhSoJoe. Ignore the grumpy one. If you are interested have a search on here for Whitlock. The links to the papers he wrote whilst at Jensen transformers are very interesting. Not 100% accurate, but they were not peer reviewed. Nonetheless a very good primer on the problems that can occur and how to fix them if they do.
A simple home system esp with many components being double insulated now shouldn't suffer from this, but never say never
A simple home system esp with many components being double insulated now shouldn't suffer from this, but never say never
@OhSoJoe. Ignore the grumpy one. If you are interested have a search on here for Whitlock. The links to the papers he wrote whilst at Jensen transformers are very interesting. Not 100% accurate, but they were not peer reviewed. Nonetheless a very good primer on the problems that can occur and how to fix them if they do.
A simple home system esp with many components being double insulated now shouldn't suffer from this, but never say never
Ignore?
Why?
My "Real Life" experiences and information about this wiring are accurate and truthful.
I have no issues with my system, and don't intend to, with the wiring I previously discussed on here.
So why should you make that snarky remark?
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