[Tokenganjaclan]

Simple question. When making Headphone cables Should you ground part of the shield as well as the Two common grounds?
I have always just twisted ( Mogami 2893) the Black & Clear wires together and solder to the ground spot on Nuetrik 271. Then Red/Blue for the L/R.
Should I add the shield with the Two commons? Personally I haven't noticed any difference shield ungrounded.

 

[Pars]

Without grounding at least one end of the shield, it is doing nothing AFAIK.

 

[Tokenganjaclan]

Yeah that makes sense, but wouldn't grounding the shield with the common grounds introduce any signals the shield "picks up" into the audio stream causing hums or whatnot? It seems if the shield is just running along and it picks up stray signals it would keep them from getting into the audio path.

 

[rds]

Assuming your house is wired properly the ground wire is connected to the earth (as in the whole planet). It'll be OK

 

[Tokenganjaclan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by rds /img/forum/go_quote.gif Assuming your house is wired properly the ground wire is connected to the earth (as in the whole planet). It'll be OK

LOL, Well my house was built in 48 and sits right on the beach so I guess I'm in serious trouble..

 

[regal]

Just make sure you tie only one end of the shield to ground. Otherwise it becomes and antennae

 

[bequietjk]

Reviving this ancient thread for my concern.

Let's say for example we have this audio chain.

AC Mains > Linear power supply > DAC > AMP

There will be one cable connecting the mains to the LPS, one cable connecting the LPS to the DAC, and then signal cables to the AMP. The question is, at what point is shielding potentially good or bad? Because I've created each of these cables besides the RCA, but I never tie'd the shielding to any of the grounds. The braided shielding is just there, passively.

 

[tomb]

DAC to amp shielding could be critical, the rest - not so much. Unshielded RCA cables between the DAC and amp can pick up a lot of extraneous noise. Since they are carrying small analog signals that eventually need a lot more amplification, any extraneous noise will be amplified, too.

A lot of people who fabricate their own cables use shielded coax, instrument cable for RCA patch cords. In that case, the shielding is the ground, anyway - there is no additional conductor.