Building and Testing Audio Cables

RE: Building and Testing Audio Cables

shabaz — Mon, 11 Jan 2016 13:59:10 GMT

A (kind-of) technical article by the BBC today..

although why they didn't just call the plastic rings 'insulating rings' like the Wikipedia entry is unknown.

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RE: Building and Testing Audio Cables

Problemchild — Tue, 05 Jan 2016 08:55:51 GMT

Great article on a very valid but under considerd subject. I see that others have mentioned the termination and transformer effects we mentioned earlier. Do you know what difference running the same length of cable side by side linearly is?

For testing say three cables at once could you have the emitting cable running down the tube centrally then run each cable equi distant the length of the tube held in place with end caps with some holes in ?!

RE: Building and Testing Audio Cables

mcb1 — Mon, 04 Jan 2016 02:52:55 GMT

Nice ost.

We always used double screened cable (two seperate braids earthed at only one end) in our telecommunications.

Never did stop to grab some for later ...

I've never fallen for the marketing hype associated with cables.

It's usually to justify the exhorbitant price they have on them.

A great idea to do some comparitive tests ...

Mark

RE: Building and Testing Audio Cables

Robert Peter Oakes — Sun, 03 Jan 2016 21:09:06 GMT

Very good presentation, nice one

Peter

RE: Building and Testing Audio Cables

DAB — Sun, 03 Jan 2016 19:37:53 GMT

Excellent post.

Most studies I have seen claim that bad cables account for over 50% of failures.

So you have highlighted a very important part of making. Get good cables and check them often.

DAB

RE: Building and Testing Audio Cables

Jan Cumps — Sun, 03 Jan 2016 16:07:50 GMT

Would the testbed profit by having a ~500 Ohm resistors for each channel at the (now floating) input side, reflecting a typical audio line out impedance?

RE: Building and Testing Audio Cables

michaelkellett — Sun, 03 Jan 2016 16:02:34 GMT

The collet type cable clamp with the addition of the softish rubber grommet on the Neutrik connectors works extremely well (probably better than the heatshrink and MUCH better than the crimp on cable clamp) and can be undone at any time. The collet grips the cable without imposing any undue stress or requiring any tools and the rubber grommet controls the flexing at a point some distance from the clamping so the cable doesn't bend around a hard interface.

Although the Belden cable is well shielded the foil and braid construction makes it rather stiff. Double braided cables may be the answer (but not that cheap (58p per foot against 20p and 70p for the 9533 and 9841) ).

This article is somewhat flawed but interesting: Hum Rejection in Unbalanced Audio Cables -- Blue Jeans Cable

RE: Building and Testing Audio Cables

jw0752 — Sun, 03 Jan 2016 15:54:38 GMT

Hi Shabaz,

This is a positively excellent analysis and presentation of a very important yet mostly ignored problem. I will add some additional observations in a later comment. Thanks for sharing your research.

John