Mini to Mini: Star Quaq Cable Shield as Ground?

[Mackie 0]

Very true pal...kekeke...... My take is, I think your cable is already optimised by having greater wire gauge to increase conductivity which in my opinion, is more imperative over RFI issues.

[bpribadi 0]

You guys right, for short distance the difference may not be audible. Don't worry to much about it. For me, if I use starquad, will use white pair for L & R, blue for ground, and connect the shield only on one end of the ground, which is the input end (eg. amplifier)

 

As for Huangyong comment about waveform coherency, well I guess the starquad manufacturer would have thought about it I use starquad (canare) in my church, about 35 meters for microphones, and other instruments, it sounds great Seems better then the previous normal twisted pair (2 conductors) mic cable.

 

StarQuad

Edited March 3, 2006 by bpribadi

[jtfoo 0]

. In this case, wouldn't the shield still "pollute" the ground still since it's connected?

For the shied to be effective, it has to be ground. If it's not ground, it does not have any shielding capabilities to channel RFI to ground. Connecting the shield at both end is alright, but some audiophile prefer to terminate just the source end, as already mentioned.

[aaa 0]

I see it now regarding the balanced or unbalanced thingy.

 

Okay, back to the connection, I've actually made 2 cables, 1 short 15cm mini to mini and another 1m length mini to mini cable.

I was concern about the connection with the shield as ground because of the length of the 1 metre cable. I saw the guide in headfi saying to ground the sounce end of the shield, leaving the other unterminated. While the 4 conducter star quad will be in the following config: 1 white for left, the other white for right channel and the remaining 2 blues as ground. In this case, wouldn't the shield still "pollute" the ground still since it's connected?

 

I was concern because if it was terminated with the shield as ground and 2 wires for each of the channel, I probably would have just gotten normal 2 conducter cable like the canare L2T2S instead of a star quad!!

for unbalance connection, the only think that you can do to eliminate RFI is to shield the cable.

I think the Head-fi guide or somewhere have explained that why you should short the shield to the groud at one end of the cable, whether it's at the source or at the receiving side is really not that important. so just follow loh.

 

As the others have said RFI is not really a problem in most cases unless you have some non FCC compliant cheapo stuff around (like cheap toys with motor).

 

And when RFI does become a problem, so golden rule is to go balanced.

[Ahlek 0]

I just DIY a mini to mini using Canare L-2T2S with its shield for ground to F12 mini plugs. Sounds great!

 

Many thanks to the contributors of this thread for the idea.

[Mackie 0]

Yes I made one too albeit using Canare and Neutril plugs. I say, the L2T2s suits closed cans very well cos of its slightly laid back nature and depth. Conversely, Canare L4E5S is great for open cans as its more forward while bass and treble has slightly greater attack which will compensate for ambient noise intrusion to the cans when used in noiser environment.