Why french braid?

That's what I'd like to know.

Twisted pair is where it's all at.

Read up on litz braiding guys. There is a decent chunk of benefit to many many braided wires caring the same signal.

Im too crunked to type more. 

PS: its not french braiding. depending who does it its a simple 4 strand flat braid or a 4-strand round braid. French braiding is a totally different thing. The lamest are "many strand" flat braids. You should not expect much from a cable gal, your setting yourself up for disappointment. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by nikongod 

Read up on litz braiding guys. There is a decent chunk of benefit to many many braided wires caring the same signal.

 

Litz, and the braiding the original poster is talking about serve two different purposes.

Litz, most all of which is twisted rather than braided, is for ameliorating skin and proximity effect.

Braiding in this case is a form of self-shielding from magnetic fields (which also means it radiates less)

The design was invented back in 1958 by Henry Albert Milloit for the Perfection Mica Company and a patent (2,958,724) was granted in 1960.

It provides greater immunity from magnetic fields than a twisted pair or twisted quad.

It's still made today by the same company which now goes by the name of Magnetic Shield Corporation and marketed under the trade name Inter-8 Weave.

As an aside, back in 2001, Kimber Kable was able to secure a patent on the same design (6,215,062) which they market as "Orthogonal Gyro Quaratic." However they don't terminate the pairs properly and so it doesn't provide the same self-shielding of the original design. And since the design is now in the public domain, Kimber's patent isn't enforceable so don't worry about being sued for patent infringement.

se

It's been thorougly debated in the past that you should never braid different sigals, as this would increase crosstalk....it looks audiophile and somehow justifies the ridiculous amounts asked by premium cables sellers, but some ppl here on head-fi came with proofs that braiding stereo signal is actually a terrible idea. The search engine is pretty borked atm, so google would be a better option to locate those threads: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&source=hp&q=braid+crosstalk+site%3Awww.head-fi.org&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=

http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/404563/thread-trolled#post_5380293

"If you read the litz website very carefully you will see that he strictly instructs not to braid multiple signals together, as that creates alot of crosstalk. A proper litz braided cable has 4 wires for each channel, seperately braided."

Quote:

Originally Posted by leeperry 

It's been thorougly debated in the past that you should never braid different sigals, as this would increase crosstalk....it looks audiophile and somehow justifies the ridiculous amounts asked by premium cables sellers, but some ppl here on head-fi came with proofs that braiding stereo signal is actually a terrible idea. The search engine is pretty borked atm, so google would be a better option to locate those threads: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&source=hp&q=braid+crosstalk+site%3Awww.head-fi.org&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=

 

http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/404563/thread-trolled#post_5380293

 

"If you read the litz website very carefully you will see that he strictly instructs not to braid multiple signals together, as that creates alot of crosstalk. A proper litz braided cable has 4 wires for each channel, seperately braided."

The original poster didn't specify a mono cable or a stereo cable. Just to clarify, what I had said about braiding applies to a mono cable.

For a stereo cable, the braid ultimately reduces to two interwoven twisted pairs, one pair per channel.

As for crosstalk, certainly there would be more crosstalk in a stereo cable. But has anyone done any measurements to see just how much there is and whether or not it's of significance?

se

It is audibly significant to me.  =\

I figure it can be investigated by assembling two stereo cables, same materials and what not but one braided and the other with twisted pairing.  Then a source is used for each one (same source) and RMAA can check the exact amount of crosstalk.

But discussions on this matter I have seen (without searching for info on cabling) are people arguing over whether or not to braid or TP a four-conductor stereo cable.

I'm not going to be making any eight-conductor cables anytime time soon, so no braiding, and I don't get the impression that most people will be putting octo-cables on their stuff as quite a few seem to be skeptical of using that many conductors in the first place.

Hence I say, TP is the way to go!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mad Max 
Hence I say, TP is the way to go!

So did Cornholio.

se

For there is but one bunghole.

because the up-do is so in right now.