I've seen the builds for RCA cables. I'm interested in doing one with Canary star quad cable. All the bills I've seen use one cable or RCA, tying two lines to center pin, two cables to outer pin (sleeve, ground) and shield to ground on one end. With Canary having for conductors, could I use single cable for RCA pair? 1 conductor for left channel pin, second conductor for left ground, third for right channel pin, fourth for right channel ground? I would then have to tie the shield to both left and right grounds on one end and leave floating on the other end. Since I haven't seen this done I suspect it won't work, and I suspect it's the unbalanced shield. Can someone elaborate on why not if that's the case and what unbalanced signal mean and why it's important? Thank you.
RCA Cable - Dumb question
- Thread starter kaszkiet
- Start date
I did read up on balanced vs unbalanced signals. I do still fail to understand 1. Why tying shield to ground on one end helps? 2. Those cables are directional. I have read conflicting info as to which end the shield/ground connection should be connected. Is it source or receiving end and why?And 3. Is tying the shield to both grounds (which would essentially be tying the grounds together) a bad thing or produce worst results?
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Don't use star quad cable for short unbalanced runs there's no point...I used the exact cable you mentioned in builds for mic cable for a venue. Balanced audio is used extensively in pro audio for mics and long runs as it contains an inverted signal as well as the normal signal, this way they can be compared at the input and the hum they may have picked up can be cancelled out.
Keeping the ground to one end can technically avoid ground loops, but can cause problems sometimes as well.
Also cables aren't directional., atoms in copper are happy to move wherever.
Keeping the ground to one end can technically avoid ground loops, but can cause problems sometimes as well.
Also cables aren't directional., atoms in copper are happy to move wherever.
Blue Shadow
Waiting for Vintage Gear from this century
You could but it is not ideal. The star quad is a shielded set of 4 conductors and when you split the RCA 1 wires from the RCA 2 wires you have no shield over those wires as they go from the shielded complete wire to the RCA plug. This is where the RFI and EMI will be lining up to get into the signal path.
Now you could knit a shield for those two wires or use a metal foil covering and connect that to the main shield from the star quad wire and then connect that shield to ONE end of the RCA cables you build. This would be the directional cables you read about and mention. Some saying the shield end gets connected to the source components and other to the downstream component.
Now you could knit a shield for those two wires or use a metal foil covering and connect that to the main shield from the star quad wire and then connect that shield to ONE end of the RCA cables you build. This would be the directional cables you read about and mention. Some saying the shield end gets connected to the source components and other to the downstream component.
What is the overall opinion, does floating the shield on one end help at all? I've read some opinions claiming that it does and some opinions that are highly sceptical.
Blue Shadow
Waiting for Vintage Gear from this century
I got no idea about a directional IC based on a shield connected to only one end. I've looked and don't did consensus on which end to connect the shield to ground or a properly written discussion of the pros and cons. I have picked up some directional cables and don't know how I hook em up but try to do them the same. I select using them by length of cable needed
grey
Super Member
Canare L-4E3-2P 2 Channel Star Quad Audio Snake Cable would be a better choice. I follow the Rane notes for everything and the result is always good.
This is a Mogami 2930 2 channel snake with nice termination pants. Good for ruggedizing the thin inner channels.
This is a Mogami 2930 2 channel snake with nice termination pants. Good for ruggedizing the thin inner channels.
I have no science to contribute — but I use cables that are dual-core to + and – on the RCA plug, with a floating shield. They're by far the best of dozens of cables I have, including pricey "high end" stuff that's conventionally constructed.
But the wire inside is quite exotic: not just high-purity, but also 'linear crystal'. They claim each copper crystal is 40cm long. That could be a bigger factor than the construction.
But the wire inside is quite exotic: not just high-purity, but also 'linear crystal'. They claim each copper crystal is 40cm long. That could be a bigger factor than the construction.
cyto
Super Member
Grounding one end of the shield reduces the chance that a ground loop will result. That does not mean that if you don't do this you will get a ground loop hum, or that if you have a ground loop hum it will eliminate it.
In some cases it will matter and in some it won't.
Grounding is complicated and circuit dependent, there are some general rules of thumb or guidelines that are used and this is one of them.
