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should headphone cables be shielded?

post #1 of 21
6/20/09 at 11:47pm
Thread Starter 
i know that sounds like a dumb question, but i read a lot about people recabling their headphones with wire such as cat5 which may not always be shielded. i also see a lot of wire that is recommended for headphone recabling and the wire is not shielded. however, on some of my headphones, the cable is indeed shielded. so does it have to be shielded or not? i wouldn't want any cross feed or channel interference... and i'm not talking about a huge length of wire. i tried searching, but maybe i'm just dumb and i don't know how to word the search query correctly, lol. thanks!!!
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post #2 of 21
6/21/09 at 1:16am
Welcome to Head-Fi! (Sorry about your wallet)

I wouldn't worry about it. Think of headphones as small speakers, and re-wire them as one would speakers with new speaker cable.

I'd hop around the DIY forum, and see what the recabling mavens are up to.

NK
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post #3 of 21
6/21/09 at 1:24am
Thread Starter 
thanks for the welcome, nick! i'm totally new to headphones -- at least good HPs. i have a decent stereo setup built around a modified NAD 3020. i also have some nice polk monitor series speakers with rebuilt x-overs. but i'm back living with my parents while i try to finish college and i can't be blaring my music late at night. so i'll definitely be sticking around!
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post #4 of 21
6/21/09 at 2:10am
Yes they can be. When you start messing with dielectric material (shielding) you can alter the sound and you may not like the result? Most speaker wire is unshielded for that reason.
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post #5 of 21
6/21/09 at 5:06am
Some cable designers even go so far as stating the insulating material (teflon, PVC, cotton) effect the sound signature

i suppose the ultimate dielectric "material" would be a vacuum
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post #6 of 21
6/21/09 at 5:21am
Quote:
Originally Posted by BIG POPPA View Post
Yes they can be. When you start messing with dielectric material (shielding) you can alter the sound and you may not like the result? Most speaker wire is unshielded for that reason.
Dielectric =/= shielding. The dielectric is what a cable is sheathed in, whereas shielding is a metal wrap around the sheathed cables that mitigate interference.
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post #7 of 21
6/21/09 at 11:51am
Shielding could almost be anything from techflex, PVC, wire mesh, Kapton, Teflon, ERS paper and so on.
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post #8 of 21
6/21/09 at 12:28pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by BIG POPPA View Post
Shielding could almost be anything from techflex, PVC, wire mesh, Kapton, Teflon, ERS paper and so on.
royalcrown is correct. Shielding and sheathing are two different things. Shielding is metallic (for electrical conductivity) and acts to capture and drain away electro-magnetic, electro-static and radio frequency interference before it reaches the signal wires.

Sheathing is the insulating material that covers the signal wires. This sheathing has dielectric properties (interaction with the electrical flow in the signal wires). Different insulating materials have different dielectric constants (more or less interaction). External sheathing (e.g. techflex) is used to protect the cable from physical damage (and for cosmetics).
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post #9 of 21
6/21/09 at 5:11pm
Thread Starter 
wow, thanks guys! that's some great information. definitely some interesting stuff there. that's what i love about this hobby. but sometimes i just need to relax with my old grado sr80s and remember to enjoy the music.
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post #10 of 21
6/21/09 at 6:22pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by jbarbier View Post
wow, thanks guys! that's some great information. definitely some interesting stuff there. that's what i love about this hobby. but sometimes i just need to relax with my old grado sr80s and remember to enjoy the music.
That's what it's all about!

NK
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post #11 of 21
6/21/09 at 6:28pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by BIG POPPA View Post
Most speaker wire is unshielded for that reason.
Cardas - shielded
Transparent - shielded
MIT - shielded
Kimber - unshielded
Shunyata - shielded
Audioquest - shielded

I'm not sure where you got your information
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post #12 of 21
6/21/09 at 8:35pm
Headphones are relatively low-impedance devices(unlike amplifiers!) and shielding isn't very critical. The same goes for speakers.
On the other hand, I highly recommend against unshielded interconnects as the high impedance lines are much more susceptible to interference.
A lot of stock wires use a dual-coaxial configuration, using a single conductor in the center for the signal, and conductive material around it that acts as both shielding and as the ground conductor.
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post #13 of 21
6/22/09 at 11:45am
For headphones it's not necessary. Don't worry about it and enjoy your tunes.
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post #14 of 21
6/25/09 at 10:44am
I use a 1 ft Kimber IC between my DAC and amp, and as bhjazz said, it has no shielding. I don't hear anything that could be recognized as interference; RFI, EMF, etc. I doubt shielding has any actual impact on sound, then again, I've never used a shielded cable. I am however, a physicist in training (college), and I can tell you that I can't imagine anything that could justify shielding for IC or extension cable. seems to me shielding is a selling point and for looks more than anything (for companies like Cardas et al). running cable through a building for a PA or 100+ ft cables for concerts need shielding, but not anything in the 10's of feet.

I can always be wrong though.
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post #15 of 21
6/25/09 at 11:53am
A freind has TV and lots of electronic near his hifi and his kimber KCAG IC (the one I sold him) picks up lots of noises like crazy. So in some situation shielding does matter.
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