Richard, about those twisted pair cables...

[Rick SQ]

Richard, you replied to my question two days ago about building RCA interconnects using twisted pair cable. To respond to your question, the EQ 232 is phoenix gold's dual 30 band eq with either RCA or "balanced" inputs. The balanced portion (in and out)looks like a phone jack with about 8 prongs at the very bottom. Can I build cables with RCA jacks from the head unit to the balanced input, then back out the balanced output to RCA plugs again? Also, what specs do you recommend for twisted pair cable.. ie- guage, twists per inch, outer cover (not shield, I got that part!) Why would someone use an 8 conductor wire and have four wires for ++, and four for - -? Thanks again for your help.

[Richard Clark]

rick i sent yu an e-mail so yu could clarify a couple of things--did you get it?

[ZPAlex]

Rick,

Why not just buy the TBAT2 that goes with the EQ?? It has an 8 volt line driver and balanced outputs to match the inputs of your EQ.

According to PG you can't use RCA in and balanced out on their processors. You have to use balanced in to get balanced out.
I have their PLD1 line driver and ZPA amps. It is so crystal clear with the RCA inputs I'm not even going to bother with the balanced inputs on the ZPAs.

[Rick SQ]

Richard, I sent you back an email. Did you get it? I will try to get the diagram from phoenix gold. Also, I had asked about a Belden wire someone said you recommended years ago, model # 9681. It has 4 twisted pairs. He uses four to the positive and four to the negative when he solders a single channel. Any benefits to this?

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Car audio fanatic with a thing for Jaguars.

[Richard Clark]

rick once again i don't understand your post what does 4 to the + and 4 to the - mean? I will look for the e-mail----you might have to send it again

[BlackMax88]

there is no reason to do what you said.

twisted pair cables just trade off high capacitance for inductance. you can get similar results with a well-designed coax cable, such as RG-62 type coax.

not only that, but balanced inputs work on the premise that everything in the signal path (the preout, the cable, and the pre-in) are the same impedance. since you're not using the balanced line driver, you'd be wasting your time because there would be no benefit in noise-rejection.

my suggestion, seriously, is to go to your local Radio Shack and get some of their gold series RCA cables. they are consistently measured among the best, even when compared to those $300/ft. voodoo-hogwash cables.

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take care,
Mike Kim
TeamAMP Technical Director

[Dukk]

You are seriously trying to say that a coaxial cable is superior to a twisted pair most of the time? Also, twisted pairs don't really work?

I'm afraid I must strongly disagree.

IMO, provided your amplifier has differential inputs, a twisted pair cable will prove superior almost all of the time.

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Have hole saw, will travel

[Audiophyle]

What's next? AS400 Coax cable?????

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STILL waiting to hear a GOOD pair of HLCD's!!

If it dont fit, force it... if it breaks, it needed to be replaced anyway...

members.tripod.com/Audiophyle (http://members.tripod.com/Audiophyle)

[toslink]

Remember....that's IBM brand AS400 co-axial cable :> )

[BlackMax88]

Dukk, i realize that you've been here much longer than me, and i respect that.... you also seem to have a good understanding of audio....

but you have misquoted me....

you claim i said that i am "seriously trying to say that a coaxial cable is superior to a twisted pair cable". i specifically said that twisted pairs trade off capacitance for low inductance.

sure, twisted pairs may have benefits, but are they audible? in the (very) vast majority of cases, no. and i said that Radio Shack gold series cables considerably measures among the best; i did not measure them, John Dunlavy did. and why don't you ask him what the real deal with cables are? take a look at rec.audio.tech.

i never said that twisted pair cables don't work, but that Radio Shack measures among the best in ALL price categories WRT audible properties, including just about every cable that Dunlavy has measured. and Dunlavy's approval is sure as hell good enough to win my support.

having spent quite a bit of time making twisted pair cables, i can say that 99% of the time they yield NO audible differences over the $15 cables they replaced.

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take care,
Mike Kim
TeamAMP Technical Director

[This message has been edited by BlackMax88 (edited 04-06-2000).]

[Dukk]

I personally believe that unless something is wrong with a particular cable (whether in construction or properties) that there is no audible difference in any cable.
I merely laud the superior noise rejection qualities of a twisted cable. This is a very real problem and a UTP cable is a great solution!

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Have hole saw, will travel