[Basilius]

I'm building my own headphone extension cable, and I'm using three 26 AWG wires to do it (right, left, ground).  I'm going to be sleeving the wires together in a nylon multifilament sleeving, and I was wondering it it's necessary to braid the wires before covering them in sleeving, or can I just leave them unbraided within the sleeving (straight)?  Would there be any benefits to braiding the wires before sleeving them, or no?

 

[krmathis]

One benefit would be that the final cable would most definitely look cleaner.
As you will have a tidy braided round(ish) cable under the sleeve, and not just "unorganized" cables.

Not needed though.

 

[dura]

IF you ever used a DAP with a FM radio build in you will know that a short headphone cable can sometimes make an amazingly good antenna for radio, and no doubt other hf noise you do not want in you circuitry. Braiding reduces the suspectability of cables to this. So I would say braiding is definately a good idea.

 

[Bones13]

Braiding = external signal rejection - similar to using a shield.  Shield is more absolute, but can affect the sound quality, therefore most prefer to braid the cables, and skip the shielding.

 

[leeperry]

many ppl believe that braiding different signals is a terrible idea crosstalk-wise, it's been thoroughly debated on the forum.

 

[TheKisho]

I'd think other than the external signal rejection benefits it would also make for a stronger cable, which is a +1 in my book for doing it.