Shielded cat 5 interconnects?

[MikeHunt79]

Hi,

I have a load of shielded cat 5, 100's of meters of the stuff...

Anyway, I want to run 4 channels of audio thru my car from my crossover to my amp.

Would shielded cat5 make a good interconnect between the 2? Should I wire the shield up to anything or leave it disconnected?

How about connectors? I could use normal RCA's, but I was wondering if I could use the proper cat5 connectors? I don't mind cutting a hole in my amp as it's a DIY thing.

 

[droptop]

im currently using shielded cat5 for my aux in. i don't see a problem with it, and using a cat5 connector instead of rca's- it would be a lot more compact. someone will chime in if its a bad idea.

 

[MikeHunt79]

Nice... What cat5 socket did you use?

Was it something like this:

http://uk.farnell.com/jsp/search/productdetail.jsp?sku=1202031

I'm not 100% sure if this will work with a normal connector, or only ethercon connectors....

 

[droptop]

i didn't use a socket, just used molex connectors on the pinout of the head-unit where the CD player usually goes, and on the other end i spliced it into the line of a regular male interconnect cable. it allows me to play anything in my car that has a standard 1/8" plug. (trying to keep things looking stock, as its a convertible- keeping the factory head unit was a top priority.

 

[MikeHunt79]

i didn't use a socket, just used molex connectors on the pinout of the head-unit where the CD player usually goes, and on the other end i spliced it into the line of a regular male interconnect cable. it allows me to play anything in my car that has a standard 1/8" plug. (trying to keep things looking stock, as its a convertible- keeping the factory head unit was a top priority.

Gotcha - I've found an old Ethernet card that I can butcher for it's socket, so I'll give it a go.

 

[KP11520]

Hi Mike,

You know here in America, back in 94, I worked for a network integrator. We sold a large ITT Screen (shielded) Cat-5 Cabling plant to a big Tea company. So the Screen had to have a "Drain" which meant the shielding had to be attached to a solid ground (Building Steel). So this meant that the Cat-5 plugs and jacks had to be special to offer a conduit for the signals the shielding absorbed to be sent to the ground or they could cause interference in the Ethernet Network. The shielding was a mylar foil and didn't play nice with solder and required a mechanical connection. The cable plant was tested at a much more strict test level and was guaranteed to outperform regular Cat-5 because of the protection the properly grounded shielding offered.

So if you are going to use this, do it for the right reasons other than just because you have it! Find out if it will out perform other methods and obviously make sure the shielding works for you and not against you! Find a way to ground the shielding to the car and not the amp or head or crossover. They each should have their own ground to the chassis steel as well. iIf you don't attach to a ground, it will actually attract noise and interference and who know how that will affect the signals over the four pairs of TWISTED!

BTW, What did you ever get for Studio Monitors?

Regards//Keith

 

[Speedskater]

For an unbalanced interconnect in a high EMI/RFI environment, Mylar foil and a drain wire is not the way to go.

 

[MikeHunt79]

Hi Mike,

You know here in America, back in 94, I worked for a network integrator. We sold a large ITT Screen (shielded) Cat-5 Cabling plant to a big Tea company. So the Screen had to have a "Drain" which meant the shielding had to be attached to a solid ground (Building Steel). So this meant that the Cat-5 plugs and jacks had to be special to offer a conduit for the signals the shielding absorbed to be sent to the ground or they could cause interference in the Ethernet Network. The shielding was a mylar foil and didn't play nice with solder and required a mechanical connection. The cable plant was tested at a much more strict test level and was guaranteed to outperform regular Cat-5 because of the protection the properly grounded shielding offered.

So if you are going to use this, do it for the right reasons other than just because you have it! Find out if it will out perform other methods and obviously make sure the shielding works for you and not against you! Find a way to ground the shielding to the car and not the amp or head or crossover. They each should have their own ground to the chassis steel as well. iIf you don't attach to a ground, it will actually attract noise and interference and who know how that will affect the signals over the four pairs of TWISTED!

BTW, What did you ever get for Studio Monitors?

Regards//Keith

I'm sure I can ground the shielding, as my cat5 wire also has a ground wire that it touching the film all the way down the cable. I can simply extend this wire, and connect it to the chassis.

I've got normal cable in there at the moment, but I can see how the cat5 compares and if it gives better results then I'll take the normal wire out. Once I get my crossover sorted I shuold be able to get testing...

I still haven't got around to getting some good studio monitors... They are on the backburner right now, I've got too many projects going on it seems. :/ Sennheiser HD580's are pretty good for now, but they don't have the same soundstage that speakers do...

For an unbalanced interconnect in a high EMI/RFI environment, Mylar foil and a drain wire is not the way to go.

So what, in your opinion, would be the way to go?

 

[Speedskater]

I use co-ax with a heavy braid and robust connectors.
A for layer is OK but the drain wire sucks.
I get the co-ax from the boating shop (Ancor brand) it's designed for the harsh environment (wet) found in a boat.