Two weeks ago, I talked about a bunch of “ways that didn’t work” for building high quality, rugged audio cable. This week, I cover the other side: How to build your own high quality rugged audio/lighting cable, for about the same cost as the cheap stuff from China!
(Comments from Blogger)
2018-12-25 by Unknown
The effect of the cable capacitance on high frequencies is determined by the driving impedance ( which usually dwarfs the receiving impedance) and cable length. Have you done testing to see if the low Z wire has audible benefit? The importance of shielding and common mode rejection is determined by intensity of the emf , the effectiveness of the differential input stage,and the signal level of the audio. I have never been able to justify low capacitance cable in any environments I have found myself in. Also , potted connections are awful to fix. With a good strain relief which prevents cable/connector movement ( and squeezes hard enough to stop the contents of the jacket from creeping ) I have found no use for potting. Thanks again for your wonderful writing! Rob in Rochester NY
2018-12-25 by Russell Graves
I haven’t subjected the cable to blind A/B testing, no. Nor do I particularly care - I mostly wanted a very nice cable that also meets DMX spec. Meeting DMX spec implies a fairly low capacitance.
These cables are an example of my normal project motto: “If it’s worth doing, it’s worth overdoing.” Since I don’t really consider my labor cost a factor on these projects, for a materials cost of ~cheap cables, I have something far, far better.
I agree about potted connections being hard to fix, but the idea is that they don’t require fixing in the first place. I can melt out the hot glue if needed with my hot air rework station, and worst case I can redo an end for the loss of a few inches of cable. The hot glue is almost certainly overkill for the sake of overkill, though.