So, I've been re-jigging my system and moving things around & my speaker cables are 0.5m too short....
So I was digging around the spares box and found some Chord Shawline X speaker cable that someone had thrown in as a freebie when I bounght my last amp. I have to say that I am not given to paying serious money for cables, rather I prefer the well engineered, decent gauge & well terminated approach. Not even sure what the last cables were.
Having looked at the Shawline, it is shielded. I really can't see the point of shielded cable for speaker cable, however given I've got it....
The thing is, it's reasonably made up, decent plugs etc. But the screen is not connected. What on earth is the point of that? Not connecting the shield to ground surely means its likely to act as an aerial and increase noise rather than reduce it (not that I would normally expect a speaker level signal to be affected by electrical noise under normal conditions).
Looking on-line, none of the images of this cable seem to imply a ground connection so where / what the heck is the benefit to having a screen?
I'm using Cambridge 851W power amps with balanced signal input. These have a mains earthed chassis & signal ground is decoupled from mains earth by 50ohm resistor + capacitor. Speaker cable length is only 2.5m.
Anyways I guess there are two options:
1. Connect the shield to the negative signal plug at the amp (only)
2. Connect the speaker cable shield to the case of the power amp, & ensuring no connection between signal lines & screen.
Seems to me to make more sense to couple directly to the case effectively extending the screening of the casework.
[Its either that or flog the Shawline & just use some 2.5mm stranded mains cable for now!]
So I was digging around the spares box and found some Chord Shawline X speaker cable that someone had thrown in as a freebie when I bounght my last amp. I have to say that I am not given to paying serious money for cables, rather I prefer the well engineered, decent gauge & well terminated approach. Not even sure what the last cables were.
Having looked at the Shawline, it is shielded. I really can't see the point of shielded cable for speaker cable, however given I've got it....
The thing is, it's reasonably made up, decent plugs etc. But the screen is not connected. What on earth is the point of that? Not connecting the shield to ground surely means its likely to act as an aerial and increase noise rather than reduce it (not that I would normally expect a speaker level signal to be affected by electrical noise under normal conditions).
Looking on-line, none of the images of this cable seem to imply a ground connection so where / what the heck is the benefit to having a screen?
I'm using Cambridge 851W power amps with balanced signal input. These have a mains earthed chassis & signal ground is decoupled from mains earth by 50ohm resistor + capacitor. Speaker cable length is only 2.5m.
Anyways I guess there are two options:
1. Connect the shield to the negative signal plug at the amp (only)
2. Connect the speaker cable shield to the case of the power amp, & ensuring no connection between signal lines & screen.
Seems to me to make more sense to couple directly to the case effectively extending the screening of the casework.
[Its either that or flog the Shawline & just use some 2.5mm stranded mains cable for now!]
