Reply to #11- one might also posit that while shielding a cable may limit outside signal interferences, the same close proximity shielding may well introduce unwanted signal reflections within a shield's perimeter. Could the the electrons path construe the shielding as an observer, and thus have its' pure path altered a la Erwin Shrodinger's wave function so well worked up a notch by Bors and Heisenburg? Maybe shielding introduces a different kind of noise enjoyed by some others. Maybe I need to switch to decaf... Best regards.
My pragmatic experience is as follows: I wanted to move my power amp (F4) away from my preamp (BA-3) and closer to my speakers, so I made up interconnects with Cat 5 cable - a fairly long run of about 20'. The result was increased hum.
I replaced the Cat 5 with unbalanced interconnects from Blue Jeans, and the system is now completely quiet.
So it seems likely to me that the shielding of the Blue Jeans cables made the difference.
It could mate with cat 7 also. I just got bored and thought why not to try.
Have you heard cat 7 interconnect that you say "2nd class"? I'd rather say 0.75 class.
Unbalanced connections, such as RCA, are intended to be used with shielded cable. Using anything else means you are taking a risk. The popularity of using the wrong cable (various types of twisted pair, shielded or unshielded) just shows how robust is an ordinary unbalanced connection - even using the wrong cable it still works reasonably OK.
But as the correct cable is not expensive and widely available, why use the wrong cable?
But as the correct cable is not expensive and widely available, why use the wrong cable?
Because of a law, first mentioned by Robert Scheckley IIRC, stating that due to The Universal Compensation Law, something that is crippled by very obvious and apparent disadvantages must also have equally important, hidden advantages, which is why you have to use the most inconvenient, expensive and mismatched configuration to get the most of these hidden, intangible and invaluable qualities.
Poor suckers like you and me simply pass them by without even noticing...
That explains it.
I remember a few years ago there was a thread on here about the audio circuits of some Japanese fellow who wrote wonderful poetry but designed (ahem) somewhat idiosyncratic electronics. It was astonishing to see how the fans praised him up to the skies for circuits with obvious (almost newbie-level) design errors; they were quite convinced that he was on a different plane from ordinary engineers, so our valid cricitisms were taken as evidence that he was right but we were too dull and boring to understand his advanced techniques.
I remember a few years ago there was a thread on here about the audio circuits of some Japanese fellow who wrote wonderful poetry but designed (ahem) somewhat idiosyncratic electronics. It was astonishing to see how the fans praised him up to the skies for circuits with obvious (almost newbie-level) design errors; they were quite convinced that he was on a different plane from ordinary engineers, so our valid cricitisms were taken as evidence that he was right but we were too dull and boring to understand his advanced techniques.
I know this is an old tread but I've just read it anyway..... Still trying to expand my knowledge.
Its mentioned that the return needs to be lower resistance that the signal wire, I can't see how this makes a difference in an AC signal. I thought in AC the electrons don't go anywhere directly, they are rocking backwards and forward so each conductor see both a positive and a negative pulse. Not like DC.
I could be completely wrong on this though...... Sure it will be pointed out if I am!
Am I ?
Its mentioned that the return needs to be lower resistance that the signal wire, I can't see how this makes a difference in an AC signal. I thought in AC the electrons don't go anywhere directly, they are rocking backwards and forward so each conductor see both a positive and a negative pulse. Not like DC.
I could be completely wrong on this though...... Sure it will be pointed out if I am!
Am I ?
Well there are several unusual ideas expressed in this thread. But getting back to the 'Return' conductor needing a low end-to-end resistance. It's not about the audio signal, it's about AC power supply leakage currents that find the interconnect cable a convent path back to their source. It's known as 'Common Impedance Coupling' noise.
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