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Why does ER4 have twisted stock cables?

post #1 of 8
6/2/10 at 12:34pm
Thread Starter 

Other phones don't seem to have twisted cables.  Any of you guys know the reason why Etymotic makes ER4 cables twisted.  My TF10 or RE0 does not have twisted cables, and they sound great, so I don't know why ER4 does.

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post #2 of 8
6/2/10 at 4:46pm

I think westone and some other manufacturers use it too.  

 

I highly doubt its for SQ reasons.  I haven't used them, but I'm guessing it might have advantages/disadvantages when it comes to tangling, durability, microphonics, cost, thickness, flexibility, and related cable issues.  

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post #3 of 8
6/3/10 at 6:45pm

Hey Now,

 

The old cables had a lot of microphonics. When I got my ER4Ps overhauled @ 7 years, Ety upgraded to the newer twisted cables for me. The microphonics was reduced quite a bit with the newer twisted cable, noticeably quieter for the last couple of years. The older straight cable was loud I thought. I now have APureSound cable and it is twisted as well. 

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post #4 of 8
6/5/10 at 3:18am

Heaps of IEMs have twisted cables, mostly the really good one's

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post #5 of 8
6/5/10 at 3:44am

My Shure E5c and E4c have straight cables that make jogging or walking with them on almost unbearable.  The cable hitting my clothing transmits a lot of noise.  My Westone UM3X has the twisted cable which does not transmit noise when they rub against or hit my clothing.  To be fair, the Westone cables have a rubberized coating/insulation whereas the Shure cables do not...  I haven't really had a tangling problem with any of my IEMs, so I cannot comment on that aspect.

 

-Dave

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post #6 of 8
6/5/10 at 4:23am

As far as I Know, the twisted pair is used in order to reduce the electromagnetic inductance between two parallel cables.

This concept is used in telephonic cables and in computers network cables(see utp, stp, or ftp cables) for instance.

Hope this help.

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post #7 of 8
6/5/10 at 8:17am
Thread Starter 

^Thats what I thought, I remember during a RF lab, we twisted the power supply cables to reduced interference(noise, FM radio).  It tightly couples the transformer(inductors) so there is no self induction?

 

I don't see how it can reduction the transmission of vibration.


Edited by High_Q - 6/5/10 at 8:19am
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post #8 of 8
6/5/10 at 8:28am
Quote:
Originally Posted by High_Q View Post

^Thats what I thought, I remember during a RF lab, we twisted the power supply cables to reduced interference(noise, FM radio).  It tightly couples the transformer(inductors) so there is no self induction?

 

I don't see how it can reduction the transmission of vibration.


While I'm no scientist, I've found twisted cables reduce microphonics, probably because the cables are tightly wrapped around each other, and therefore vibrations dissipate against one another before reaching the earbuds? That's my layman's take on it 

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