[J.Y.]

The last time I was at Canare's website they listed cables with both metal foil tape shielding with 100% coverage and cables w/ braided shields of 9x% coverage.

I just wonder which really is better. Most cable manufacturers in the industry advertise braided shields on their cables. Are braids superior to tape because of their superior conductivity? or is there another reason? Another guess of mine is that foil type is less flexible for application.

 

[blr]

Foil tape and braided shields are thought to be effective against different types of interference and some cables use both.
If you have to pick one, foil tapes are almost always full coverage and braids vary in coverage and overall qualty, but good Cu braid is thought to be supperior. It also doesn't need a drain wire to terminate.

 

[Ebonyks]

Depends what you're using it for. A powercable needs maxiumum shielding, but a interconnect probably will sound better with a full copper braid

 

[J.Y.]

Quote:

Originally posted by Ebonyks Depends what you're using it for. A powercable needs maxiumum shielding, but a interconnect probably will sound better with a full copper braid

still one of those things I never seem to get...
Common sense: more shielding = better shielding = better electrical properties
Reality(?): less shielding may be better sounding, depending on the application.

From what I understand, the 2 types of noises that can be introduced to a system inclue electrostatic noise and magnetic noise.

In which eletrostat noise can simply be reduced by a grounded shield, and magnetic noise has to be shielded with a thick ferrite shield or some other exotic metal.

So maybe it's rather redundant to have a shielding of higher than a certain percentage I assume?