[mattigol]

Hi there,

I am new to the whole cable terminology so please bear with me on this one: Someone above mentioned the use of Cat 5 cable. Is it conceivable that a cable paired with good connectors and well soldered will sound as good or better than the Belden coax? Or is it by design going to be of lesser quality?

Thanks!

Matthias

 

[e_dawg]

It is conceivable that CAT5 could sound as good as a Belden coax... Kimber PBJ is similar construction (?) and it is a decent budget IC. Headphile uses an unshielded twisted pair configuration, although they do not use standard CAT5 cable.

From a cable design standpoint, I can think of a couple relevant technical differences off the top of my head: (1) impedance may not be as constant as a good coax, which is known to affect the integrity of very high frequency signals (i.e., > 1 MHz). How that affects audio frequencies is up for debate; (2) instead of the coaxial shielding which is found in coax, unshielded CAT5 uses the twisted pair configuration to prevent EMI pickup.

 

[10068]

Am I the only person on HeadFi that thinks having an UNSHIELDED interconnect is preposterous?

That's like running your multi-thousand-dollar HiFi rig straight from the wall socket!

For example, the Headphile XRS is bare wire, which means it's going to just soak up EMI/RMI like nobody's business, at least in theory. I don't understand how non-shielded "audiophile" cables (especially those used in computer rigs) can get rave reviews.

/me is at a loss.

EDIT: i'm not bashing Larry or his XRS cables, just using them as a point of argument, because some have commented on them as being sibilant, bright and/or "lifeless", and I wonder if this is at least partially subject to the lack of shielding.

 

[tiberian]

well my homebrew silver ICs, power cords and silver dragon are unshielded aswell...
don't have any noise problem currently (in fact treble is clearer than ever), i start to wonder if shielding has anything to do with treble roll-off...

 

[10068]

Personally I wouldn't mind some rolled-off treble now and then. Anything past about 16Khz gives me headaches and fatigue in most configurations.

 

[e_dawg]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sduibek Am I the only person on HeadFi that thinks having an UNSHIELDED interconnect is preposterous?

Well, if you are talking about a straight, unshielded wire, no that is not recommended. But... (see below)

Quote:

For example, the Headphile XRS is bare wire, which means it's going to just soak up EMI/RMI like nobody's business, at least in theory. I don't understand how non-shielded "audiophile" cables (especially those used in computer rigs) can get rave reviews.

Headphile interconnects are unshielded twisted pair (UTP), which rejects a good deal of EMI and RFI without the need for shielding. I would still rather have a copper braided + foil shielded coax instead, but UTP is fine unless you distinctly have EMI/RFI problems.

Shielding/no shielding doesn't necessarily change the treble.

 

[tiberian]

Quote:

Originally Posted by e_dawg Well, if you are talking about a straight, unshielded wire, no that is not recommended. But... (see below) Headphile interconnects are unshielded twisted pair (UTP), which rejects a good deal of EMI and RFI without the need for shielding. I would still rather have a copper braided + foil shielded coax instead, but UTP is fine unless you distinctly have EMI/RFI problems. Shielding/no shielding doesn't necessarily change the treble.

then it must be the power conditioner.