Which I/Cs are of co axial construction?

[Non-Smoking Man]

Looking at different brands of affordable (120 pounds RRP) interconnects with co ax construction. I know of the Ecosse Conductor and Maestro (not sure how much that is..); any others?

Jack

 

[SergeAuckland]

All screened unbalanced cables are of coaxial construction. Balanced cables are normally a twisted pair surrounded by a screen, so even if you use balanced cable and use the two conductors as one, the result is a coaxial cable.

Standard impedance cables like RG6 or RG59 are accurately coaxial to maintain the impedance throughout a long length.

S.

 

[Non-Smoking Man]

I'm sure you are correct Serge.

Perhaps I should approach this topic slightly differently..

Im using Cat 6 for I/Cs, which is multistrandedand I noted the different construction of, lets say, the Ecosse Conductor I/C which has twisted copper stranded cable surrounded by a 'foam injected' white insulation layer and then braiding to complete what appears to be a cable better able to reject EMI.

What I really want to know is - will the latter type of construction be less prone to hum and noise? (I have a very efficient horn system.)

Regards, Jack

 

[SergeAuckland]

I'm sure you are correct Serge.Perhaps I should approach this topic slightly differently..

Im using Cat 6 for I/Cs, which is multistrandedand I noted the different construction of, lets say, the Ecosse Conductor I/C which has twisted copper stranded cable surrounded by a 'foam injected' white insulation layer and then braiding to complete what appears to be a cable better able to reject EMI.

What I really want to know is - will the latter type of construction be less prone to hum and noise? (I have a very efficient horn system.)

Regards, Jack

No more than a 'normal' screened cable like RG6. Some screened cables have a braided screen which doesn't fully cover the dialectric, but RG6 has a foil screen with 100% coverage. The beauty of RG6 is that it's used for satellite LNB-receiver cables, so one can pick it up from B&Q for next to nothing. Generally around 30p/m . RG59 is about the same price and a bit more flexible than RG6, if not quite as well screened, although I've not found it a problem. If you really need EMI rejection, you need to use a balanced connection.

With Cat 5 or Cat 6 cables, use STP rather than UTP, and you get the screen, but the expectation is that the pairs will be used balanced so the screening doesn't have to be that good. I have used STP Cat 5 cable for 30m long audio interconnects with no problems, but have used the 4 pairs balanced.

S

 

[Non-Smoking Man]

Your last para indicates that I am on the right lines pointing the finger at the Cat 6. My equipment is not balanced (I favour valves, not normally balanced as you know) and its 5 ways so cant do much about that w/o wholesale and expensive changes.

I'll take a look at your suggestion Serge, thanks.

Jack

 

[Guest]

When you say affordable is £120 I would immediately think paying too much. I don't think you need to be paying anything near that for a good 75ohm digital IC, where the expensive cables come into the selection is in long runs of many metres as they are better at keeping the signal intact or the square wave square. For a short 0.8 or 1 metre IC I would look for something up to £50. The chord codac silver or ecosse producer are good choices but I use mogami interconnects now and think they offer amazing vfm.

 

[oldius]

When you say affordable is £120 I would immediately think paying too much. I don't think you need to be paying anything near that for a good 75ohm digital IC, where the expensive cables come into the selection is in long runs of many metres as they are better at keeping the signal intact or the square wave square. For a short 0.8 or 1 metre IC I would look for something up to £50. The chord codac silver or ecosse producer are good choices but I use mogami interconnects now and think they offer amazing vfm.

Meanwhile, I would be looking at well under a tenner from CPC Farnell or an eBay trader as, try as a might, I can hear no difference between digital interconnects!