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15' interconnect ok?

post #1 of 18
2/3/05 at 6:30pm
Thread Starter 
I am thinking of thinking of getting an EMU card to replace my transit+DAC setup: from the reviews it should have better analog output than my DAC. The only problem is that my computer is in another room (noise reasons) so and I'd need to run 15foot interconnects to my amp. Do you think length is likely to have a significant effect on sound? Another option is just to replace my DAC.
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post #2 of 18
2/3/05 at 7:14pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by CSMR
I am thinking of thinking of getting an EMU card to replace my transit+DAC setup: from the reviews it should have better analog output than my DAC. The only problem is that my computer is in another room (noise reasons) so and I'd need to run 15foot interconnects to my amp. Do you think length is likely to have a significant effect on sound? Another option is just to replace my DAC.
you already have a DAC? just use the digital connection, 15' shouldn't be too much of a problem, but shorter is definitely better. 15' analog runs aren't uncommon either. It's not necessary to use it, but balanced connections are usually used for those kind of lengths.
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post #3 of 18
2/3/05 at 7:30pm
Thread Starter 
Thanks. Balanced would be nice, but my amp has unbalanced inputs. The DAC in the EMU is better (I am led to belive) than my standalone DAC, which is nothing special.
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post #4 of 18
2/3/05 at 7:35pm
The Entech I think is pretty good. You should at least try it out. There's not a lot of info on it out there. In fact, a google search on "Entech 205.2" yields your head-fi equipment profile!
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post #5 of 18
2/3/05 at 8:00pm
Quote:
Thanks. Balanced would be nice, but my amp has unbalanced inputs. The DAC in the EMU is better (I am led to belive) than my standalone DAC, which is nothing special
well if you have the loot balanced transformers can rectify that.The jensens are especially nice for this type of application but cheap they are not man.
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post #6 of 18
2/3/05 at 8:45pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by jefemeister
The Entech I think is pretty good. You should at least try it out. There's not a lot of info on it out there. In fact, a google search on "Entech 205.2" yields your head-fi equipment profile!
I'm almost famous! It's a fine DAC, but I think it stands at about the level of the MSB link, which is supposed to be beaten by the EMU 1212m. These views are relatively consistent. I could also consider upgrading to a Channel Islands DAC. I want 24bit to do digital volume control more comfortably. But that's more expensive and I'd have to worry about jitter.
Maybe with a furniture rearrangement I can use a 10' interconnect.

I have to say, I hate hi fi - it's so stupidly complex!
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post #7 of 18
2/3/05 at 11:57pm
15 ft is nothing. Balanced is nice, but overkill if you don't have noise problems. I have run analog cables over 100 ft, with only very minor degradation (but it was cheap cable). I am using 20 ft diy Canare from my Grace preamp to my electronic crossover. No worries.


gerG
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post #8 of 18
2/4/05 at 1:23am
Thread Starter 
That's the opinion I wanted to hear, gerG! That is 100ft unbalanced?
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post #9 of 18
2/4/05 at 3:32am
Capacitance and EMI/RFI become problematic at longer lengths. The length at which this becomes and issue depends on the amount of capacitance per foot and amount of shielding of the cable. 15 feet is about the length where I would start worrying. 100 feet is clearly going to give you suboptimal performance with 3000 pf of capacitance (!) in a typical interconnect and possible hum problems without excellent shielding.

Belden 1505F is a good choice in this regard. Capacitance is a nice low 17 pf/ft (a typical interconnect might be around 30 pf/ft), and it's well shielded with a double copper braid shield. $40 for 15 feet at Bluejeanscable.com
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post #10 of 18
2/4/05 at 5:20am
Thread Starter 
Thanks for the suggestion. Blue Jeans Cable seems to be recommended quite a bit here.
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post #11 of 18
2/4/05 at 9:24am
15 feet with decent cable (like Belden) shouldn't be a problem at all. From my personal experience, Bluejeans is an excellent company to deal with.
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post #12 of 18
2/4/05 at 2:23pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by e_dawg
Capacitance and EMI/RFI become problematic at longer lengths. The length at which this becomes and issue depends on the amount of capacitance per foot and amount of shielding of the cable. 15 feet is about the length where I would start worrying. 100 feet is clearly going to give you suboptimal performance with 3000 pf of capacitance (!) in a typical interconnect and possible hum problems without excellent shielding.

Belden 1505F is a good choice in this regard. Capacitance is a nice low 17 pf/ft (a typical interconnect might be around 30 pf/ft), and it's well shielded with a double copper braid shield. $40 for 15 feet at Bluejeanscable.com
you can always get a bunch of ferrite beads and stick them on the cable if RFI becomes a problem.
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post #13 of 18
2/4/05 at 2:40pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sinbios
you can always get a bunch of ferrite beads and stick them on the cable if RFI becomes a problem.
It's generally frowned upon to have ferrites on an analog cable. I've never tired it, but it supposedly will limit the dynamics of the music. That seems to be the popular opinion anyway.
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post #14 of 18
2/4/05 at 3:51pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sinbios
you can always get a bunch of ferrite beads and stick them on the cable if RFI becomes a problem.
RFI, yes, but the ferrite beads do not really address hum and very low frequency EMI. Heavy copper braided shielding is more effective for general EMI and especially low freq EMI, which is much more prevalent than RFI.
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post #15 of 18
2/4/05 at 10:40pm
CSMR, the 100 ft run was unbalanced. No hum or noise problems, but I did not run the cable near transformers or power cables. I am not advocating runs this long. I only mention it as a realistic limit that I have tried.

e-dawg, the capacitance is indeed a concern, but even 3000 pf is not a real issue. That would give me a hf roll-off at around 50 Khz for my particular setup. I had more than one load in parallel, which helped the rolloff issue. Again, I would not consider a 100 ft run for a serious main system. 25' is about my threshold. I usually do an A/B comparison to see if I can hear the cable.

I did fib a bit. The analog end of my main system is only 16 ft. Upstream of the dac I have another 15' of AES digital cable. This puts the 902 right next to my chair. Luxury!


gerG
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