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Old 13th Oct 2017, 11:58 am   #126
Craig Sawyers
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Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: Oxford, UK.
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Default Re: Audiophoolery. 'Cable Break In' - I never knew that!

Quote:
Originally Posted by G8HQP Dave View Post
Woven construction is likely to be very poor for RF pickup i.e. very good at picking up RF. Certainly not an RF filter. I suspect the popularity of woven (and other unsuitable audio cables) is precisely because they do pick up RF, and the resultant background noise is misperceived as extra 'detail' or 'sparkle' around the musical instruments. A Zobel at the speaker end may help at those frequencies where the cable length is resonant, or if the amp cannot cope with a capacitive load. Anyway, you admit that this is audiophoolery.

I once saw someone try to justify woven speaker cables by saying that earthing straps are woven, so therefore woven is good for RF.
The audiofoolery comment was actually rather tongue in cheek.

As part of another aspect of cable development I had a set of measurements taken for woven cables for differential and common mode transmission up to 1GHZ and RF pick up also to 1GHZ, at 3C test http://www.3ctest.co.uk/ . All as compared to the regular "kettle" lead.

Since this was all under contract, I alas cannot share the detailed results. But you alas are wrong on this. Basically RF is picked up by the inductive component of a cable - so minimising inductance is a good goal to go for, and is proven by measurement. And the 14 ohm characteristic impedance is quite correct, and is an accident of the construction, not a design goal.

Craig
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