Do Audio Cables Affect Sound Quality?
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- Опубликовано: 27 июн 2024
- Discover how audio cables eliminate noise, with demos and insights into balanced, unbalanced, and shielded connections in this video.
Radial Engineering Catapult Series: geni.us/EasJ
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Watch Next (DI Boxes Explained): • What Is A DI Box (Dire...
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00:00 Intro
00:45 Demo: Eliminating Noise with Modern Audio Cables
05:52 Advantages of Shielded Audio Cables
07:30 Demo: Condenser Mic with 100’ Shielded Cable & Shielding Details
10:18 Twisting: Enhancing Signal Quality
14:41 NEXT VIDEO - What Is A DI Box (Direct Box)? | When & How To Use One
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#AudioUniversity
Disclaimer: This description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click them, I will receive a small commission at no cost to you.
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In electrical engineering, we talk about noise and interference as two different things. Interference is unwanted signal from external sources. Noise is unwanted signal coming from the system itself. Even a perfectly shielded and isolated system will still have noise. Every resistor in the circuit produces white noise just sitting there from random movement of electrons caused by the heat of the resistor, called "thermal noise". There are other types of noise with different spectra associated with diodes, transistors, and every other type of component. Interference is the easier problem to solve, as outlined in this video. Low noise requires careful gain staging and sometimes expensive components.
We make this differentiation too. Parasitic noise and self noise. What everyone seem to forget is the tendencies for low quality cable to be microphonic (caps are too). I have yet to see a video addressing this issue.
Power conditioners are helpful 👌
True, not to mention typical impedance mismatches: and all the problems are made worse by the fact that microphones are stone-cold deaf: even the simplest typical recording signal path -- Mic, pre (or phantom), and ADC -- uses two gain stages to get enough signal without adding audible distortion (unless you have access to an ADC with a god-mode preamp that doesn't have to strain to boost the signal all the way on its own), with their associated interacting self-noises. Minimizing the noise floor over multiple stages while setting levels is so much fun ha ha ha!
The shielding only work vs higher frequency range (depending upon the amplitude of said signal). That being said as long as the cable is properly twisted will do more as far as inductance vs capacitance.
The way you create a completely educational video in combination with a non-annoying product promotion is done so well.
getting sponsored by radial is such a flex
Thanks! I’m very proud to work with them!
Bros been getting big arm sponsors left and right, rightfully so!
Indeed! I wouldn't use any other DI, other than the Sansamp VT i use.
@@AudioUniversity Congrats bro! The sponsor of a lifetime. Phewww
this is likely the best video on the topic on all of youtube. especially the last demo
Thanks!
1200 feet using an ethernet cable with hardly any loss, yet the audiophiles pay $8,000 for a stereo pair for their living room 😂
I have taken a number of IT classes, but this was the first time I really understood the function of twisting pairs of wire.
Great video. Just thought to mention that on the initial example of an instrument TS cable the impedance is important for the noise immunity. Instrument Active circuits lowers impedance and that offer advantages for noise reduction too. DI boxes not only implements differential amplifiers but also buffers signal to lower impedance
Great video mate!
Extremely well put with no shouting, childishness or silly flashing graphics for people with no attention span... well done!
Yours is, by quite some margin, one of the better audio channels on YT! 😎
However, a shielded balanced cable can also lead to problems.
We wanted to connect a mixer in one corner of the hall to an amplifier in another room. The mixer and the amplifier have the housing on PE of the main socket. Because the XLR cable shield is connected internally to PE, it was grounded at both ends. This led to disturbing noises.
It helped to put a sound transformer in between and interrupt the shielded screen.
Great point! Ground loops!
@@AudioUniversity For mono instruments like guitars, just use a good quality cloth/cotton coax cable with the shield connected at one end only. Plug the shielded end into your guitar. No noise down the cable and no ground loops. The signal uses only one wire. The ground/shield is effective only along its length. No need to connect the shield at both ends.
This was excellent. Something one understands intuitively but never really focused on. Great work, please keep doing this stuff.
You forgot to mention that STP cables are easy to come by and relatively inexpensive, thus easily changeable when needed.
I'm not a stage engineer but I would choose STP cat7 any day for this kind of work.
Thank you for teaching about balanced cables. I interview Audio techs on a consistent basis and I'm always floored how many don't understand it.
Thanks for watching!
In the audiophile sphere, this is considered a HUGE rabbit hole to go down. Good info! Have a fabulously great day! 👍🍺
In audiophile sphere it's mostly snake oil...
@@lazymass I know that only too well. I've been in arguments, over cables and other related issues, for too many years, and been raked over hot coals verbally many times by the voodoo fringe. They are a most stubborn lot.
@@lazymass Yep, I know that only too well, being involved in that area for a very long time. I support solid engineering principles only.
This is another fantastic video where you have the teaching, presentation, and topic perfectly planned and executed. I am thrilled to see this channel now at 451,000 subscribers: for being a channel that targets a rather specific audience, it has grown substantially larger than I would have anticipated and every subscriber has been well earned. I remember joining when there were but 1,200 subscribers.
Thanks for sticking with me from the beginning! I’m very fortunate to have made it this far.
Thank you, now I finally get the logic behind twisted pair cables as well as the quality differences between mic cables. You did an amazing job explaining and illustrating!
Having done a lot of networking I immediately assumed you'd get 328 feet (100 meters) out of CAT, as this is the standard for data and POE in general before needing to insert a network switch/hub/repeater to get another 328 feet. (You can exceed the standard but it is quite dependent on the situation) Was quite surprised how you can get such a significantly longer run with analog. Not that I'd even need 100 meters let alone 8x that it was still cool to see it done!
The frequencies within the audio signal are MUCH lower than the 328-ft specification. We only need it to support 20kHz, but cable made for digital and network connections support MHz and GHz communication!
Thanks Kyle and AU for always putting up great Quality Videos and useful Information with utmost comprehension!
just what i needed to see before purchasing some audio cables, thank you
Jimi Hendrix used coiled/curly cables with increased capacitance to dull the tone of his strat. The highs used to be unwanted in the 60's/70's. Many interviews you hear Jimi talk about the 'shrill' and 'treble' of other bands as being horrible. Especially in a live situation, it can cause hearing damage.
Hearing damage can be caused by any sufficiently loud sound, but especially higher frequencies tend to sound unpleasant when played at high volume.
Appreciate the captioning.
Love to see this!! 👍🏼
man, your videos are looking and sounding so pro. Really, really well done -- not to mention the content, which is excellent!
Thank you!
I frikin' love this channel!!
Thank you! Your videos are amazing!
Great info and tips to clean up the sound.
Great, great post. I love the practical demonstrations - they put relevant context on to the theory which can be mind-numbing at times. Timely too as I have been discussing cable selection with my colleagues just this past week.
My take from experience and based on what I have read:
Pros of CAT5
1. Designed for an environment where signal integrity is key - the consequence is that it uses the best cable design technology with tight specifications and consistency on conductor diameter for each conductor and along the length of each conductor, shielding, and number of twists per unit distance. Consistency in balanced cable geometry is key in rejecting common mode noise and the number of twists per foot determine the highest frequency (=shortest wavelength) for which uniform common mode noise is rejected. The basic thinking is that each twist acts as a loop antenna and alternate twists change the polarity of the noise voltage induced in the cable so that, in sum, they cancel out.
2. Designed for much higher frequencies (computer networks) than baseband audio - this is what determines the specifications for the parameters mentioned above. As audio bandwidths are well within that of wired computer networks, CAT5 just works like a silver bullet in rejecting noise from a variety of sources.
3. Economies of scale make for a cable that is cheaper and better than traditional audio cables
Cons of CAT5
1. Probably conductor size (24AWG). Balanced mic cable from what I have seen are 22AWG or thicker
2. Not as resilient if being moved continually - best applied in my opinion for installed audio
PS Performance is subject to cable length and signal bandwidth. As these increase, source and load impedances and the whole issue of matching those impedances begin to play an increasingly greater role as the cable starts to behave more like a transmission line. The challenges are probably not unlike what was faced by the legacy Rediffusion radio that preceded RF transmitted audio years ago. Rediffusion distributed baseband audio (!?!) country-wide in many UK colonies via a wired relay network.
Great info, thank you!!
Great information! Thanks!
Amazing video! I will reference this frequently! This has me now wondering about delay in relation to distance with audio signal. Eager for more videos from you, thank you!
These electrical signals travel at the speed of light, so there will be no audible delay.
Just for fun, did the calculations. For the signal to have 15ms of delay (the absolute lowest of the detectable delay), the cable would have to be 2800 miles long.
For a curious coincidence, that is almost exactly maximum wide of USA from coast to coast
@@AudioUniversity that’s awesome thank you. Do any previous videos cover delay when daisy chaining speakers?
Great advice. Thank you for sharing your knowledge. U ROCK !!!!! 😎👍
Thanks for watching!
Oh yes, very informative vid too. Thank you!
Good stuff me lad!
SUBSCRIBED!
Cool video man!
Thanks!
Very nicely done.
I have had so many arguements about balanced cables with people who simply do not know. They presume they know all there is to know, yet they have great big gaps in their knowledge.
Nowadays, converting unbalanced to balanced can be done without very expensive high quality transformers by using electronics with single chip solutions and it works just as well, if not better with very wide band amplification from DC right up to rediculous frequencies (although this can create problems too).
The only 'downside' is requiring a power supply to power it. However, you can end up with useful gain as a result resulting in more headroom.
Nice audio cable information ❤ thanks
Great educational video 👍
Hell yeah dude, looks sick.
Balanced cables and DIs are the way to go keep thay signal protected and projected.
Excellent. Thanks.
Wonderful video. It's going to be super useful. There is an unadressed, implied question about why the DI box in the beginning needs to exist instead of having a balanced, shielded cable directly from the instrument. I know the quick and bad answer - guitar outputs are unbalanced - but not why it "has" to be this way.
Although I knew this stuff, it's a very good explanation and demo that I can share with my not so technical friends.
Glad you found it valuable!
Thank you for another excellent video!
Interestingly enough, I found the pink noise at 1700 ft. and longer a little more pleasant to listen to because of the loss of harsh high end. I would need to hear an instrument's tone through the cable to be sure, but I was definitely surprised by the results.
You can get an Cat6 cable where each pair is shielded too. It then have the designations S/STP, S/FTP or F/FTP on it (S for braided shield and F for foil shield) instead of UTP (Un-shielded Twisted Pair). Most used here in Norway is Cat6A S/FTP cables. You can terminate the plugs yourself on the cables, but you need those special plugs for that. And it often takes a lot longer time to do. For those few times I use the "Field Termination Plugs" that have a lot more room in them for the thicker cables and does not need an RJ45 crimp tool.
Thanx for a good explanation og the different cable types and signal types used in Audio installations. I will be sure to send this to my colleagues :)
Interesting thing about CAT5/6/7 cable is the twist per inch (TPI) of the conductors affects the impedance of each cable pair. If you look at each pair of conductors in a CAT5/6/7 cable, you will notice the TPI is not the same, slightly affecting the impedance of each pair. This makes a difference in high speed data transmission and why correct pinning is critical when making cables.
Sick bass line bro!
That's a great explanation, but it lacks of taking into account the output impedance of the signal source. With high impedance outputs even short cable runs (dozens of meters) will ruin your signal's frequency response and level dramatically due to the internal cable capacitance. The same is with the noise interference. Noise can also easily jump into the signal path with high imedance output. So, you should take that parameter into account too when doing such tests
The important thing about multi pair data cables is that the twist rates of each pair are not mathematically related to each other reducing the coupling of pairs in the same cable. They worked this out for hundreds of pair cables to stop telephone cross talk. With cat 5 you can see how the different colour pairs have very different twist rates. For high speed data this makes a difference as each pair has a different length and the timing skew must be accounted for
very informative. thanks 👍
Glad it was helpful!
Good job,I like it! 👍👍👍
Even after auditioning 3 separate AVR's, the same ambient sound of the room was still present! That told me the unwanted faint background signal noise I had been experiencing had nothing to do with the actual units. Therefore, my attention changed to the cables. And even then It was only on the third occasion after I finally purchased shielded cables that the noise floor within my small room finally came down to satisfactory levels.
Cables often act as antennas for attracting RF, and the longer the cable, the better the antenna. Probably explains why when I used to disconnect my heights and surrounds within 10 minutes, the faint background signal noise (RF/EMI) within my small room used to disappear/dissipate.
The more cables I shield, the quieter my room becomes. In fact, the last group of cables I shielded were my HDMI's and Lo behold the room became slightly quieter again..
When friends came around, I used to show them how loud the system goes. Nowadays, I prefer to press pause and show them how quiet it goes.
None of them gets it, of course 😂
Thank you very much! Next, do a video about speaker wires.
is this compatible with CAT6 and CAT7 or just CAT5?
nevermind, you answered it 🎉
Fascinating video! I'm curious if the same amount of noise would be introduced if a long cable was stretched out it's entire length between connectors vs. the same length being of cable being mostly coiled up with the connectors being relatively close to each other. I'm sure the particulars of the space and other nearby electrical equipment would be the prevailing factors, but my hunch is that a coiled cable would pick up less noise than a stretched one.
clear as god level ... got my thumb up
EXCELLENT VIDEO! I finally know why RJ45 connectors are on audio gear
They are also sometimes there for network protocols like Dante. Check out this video: ruclips.net/video/AHgpPsZHpVE/видео.html
Not quite the video I was expecting from the title… I read once that higher frequencies prefer the surface of a conductor and so a multi-strand cable with thicker conductor yielded more high-frequency clarity over distance. I also wondered about the properties of copper vs aluminium…
The twisted pair cable is rated for frequencies MUCH higher than audio frequencies, so there may be an additional advantage there. But as you could see in the frequency analysis at the end of the video, the frequency response is flat up to about 1200 feet! Pretty amazing. These results will probably hold true for any balanced audio connection.
You're thinking of the 'skin effect' which is negligible at audio frequencies. People bring nonsense like that up when they are trying to sell you audiophile scams.
@@wrenchposting9097 I’ve suspected my whole life that it was bullshit, and expected this video to deal with it. As another commenter said, it’s a rabbit hole!
👍🏾Nice video.
Balanced lines and short runs with proper grounding for unbalanced are a lot more helpful than any fancy cable.
Yeah, building my studio on cat6 shielded saved me days of cable laying :D
That beginning tho, I would do a ton of sounddesign with it. So just using a connected cable a fan and a microphone to record this?
Holy damn, I never came across such things.🎉❤
Quality is not only as quality I love to hear quiet stuff on the track louder without upside multiband compressing
Scared me there, thought you where going to talk about speaker cable hocus pocus.
Gold and carbon fiber makes the electrons go faster!
I need to do a strand test.
Yes, see how much sound you get without them😂 magic hoguspogus are the best invisable cabel you can get, and i will sell you a pair😅🎉
I'm sorry, I couldn't read your comment through all the distortion. You should be using diamond-tipped platinum USB cables on your keyboard at the very LEAST.
What exactly do you mean by speaker cable hocus pocus?
There is an important factor regarding the gauge and material of conductors not covered in this video that is applicable to speaker wires and other analog audio signal routing - which is resistive noise.
Thinner wires made from lower quality conductors have higher resistance and therefore produce greater resistive noise. This is especially important on pre-amplified signals, but over long distances or sufficiently thin wires it can be noticeable on amplified signals like the ones traveling through speaker wires.
Has nothing to do with electrons “moving faster” like one other person sarcastically responded. In general though, it is fair to think about electrical resistance in terms of impediments to the flow of electrons, but i conceptualize the effect of this to be something like electrical turbulence rather than “slower” electrons.
Resistors produce electrical noise, especially when they get warm. That’s a fundamental principle of electrical systems, not pseudoscience.
I've often wondered why we dont use shielding for short unbalanced cables, like on pedalboards for example. Some sort of shroud like you get in aviation wiring.
Excellent video. First time I've the + and - of an xlr cable explained. It's usually called hot, neutral and ground. Neutral for - is a terrible way to say it, when it's out of phase 180 degrees. Unless I totally misunderstood. This really makes we think about the cat 5 route for super long cables. One thing troubled me: comparing the longer lengths of cable using pink noise. I heard a slight shift with higher frequencies being slightly more emphasized with the longer lengths of cable which is counter-intuitive and counter to your graph. Perhaps it's just me.
I was new to all this in the 80s. When AM radio stations still used 600 ohm landlines from a teleco for getting feeds to where they need to go.
I asked how come you can get audio across town and I can't use my hifi components (in this case a cassette deck) in another room. Why I wanted to do this is another story. But I noticed right away with RCA leads you got a bit less volume even using a 20m lead.
The broadcast tech I asked said... your stereo is 150mv and unbalanced... it also drives into a high impedance.
We use 1v balanced and it sees a 600 ohm impedance when it gets there. So its like a marathon runner that has finished the run... and now sees a whole bunch of steps they didn't know about... at the end.
1v means the runner is more fit... 600 ohms means no steps. Aha... got it!
Dont forget this is the days of telephone thinking where ends need to be matched. Not today's low impedance in the send end to high impedance in the recieve end.
I tested this... given my vintage I'd rather see all runs terminated with 600 ohm resistors. If we keep the analogies going.... modern connection is like having a pot plant sitting in the back of a transit van on its own... its going to get a ruff ride. Stick some weight in there.... aka 600 ohm terminated... in this case bags of dirt. You will get a smoother ride!
Great video!
It's interesting that CATs are a topic now (well, they must have been for longer, but the topic is popping up more frequently). I assume it's because of the economical situation. Everything's cut. Less margins, smaller investments. Cables are expensive. CATs are cutting it? ;)
Some time ago I thought to try UTP CAT 6 for 4x unbalanced audio in my studio, because I needed more cables over more than 15 ft distances
and happened to have cat6 and TS plugs at hand. Did a 30 ft cable (to be able to run it around the room rather than under the carpet) and was really suspicious about the unshielded, bare twisted pairs going to 1/4" plugs. But the result surprised myself! The cable stays in production use.
Answered one question I had and that was how a four pair cat5 unshielded worked, I always thought you either had to use shielded cable, or sacrifice one pair as a pseudo earth especially for phantom powered kit.
I'll have to try this at church.
Yes!
Next question
You had me at Radial. The Twin City is NEVER ever ever coming off my board. Ever. The transformers in that thing are 🎉
this is genius! i now understand that the signal being transferred is out of phase and it gets the in-phase noise. when recombined with polarity flip the noise would cancel out while the signal being transferred becomes phase-coherent! GE NI US !
I probably have 5 miles worth twisted and laid out down there. This demands a new appreciation of what we were taking for granted. I guess I didn't do too bad, for a home studio, she does pretty good. Little white noise if you crank it way up but other than that, not bad if I may say so. Thanks for the education. Just cause I have done it for a few days doesn't mean I have all the knowledge.
Thank you.
Perfect video! But the moving ‚sketch‘ background you use when showing cables makes me dizzy and getting a headache. Still great video and a new subscriber earned :)
It's not about the "quality" of the cable, but about the "proper" way to connect it...
Dave Rat did this test also.
With like miles of cable en stuff. 😅
Love Dave Rat!
Awesome video
Thank you!
@@AudioUniversity Was really informative and straightforward. I've talked to an audio technician, because we had problems with the signal and he told, just to buy the most expensive stuff
the best in the audio university in the world
Hey man
Love your vids
If you can talk in both ft and meters pls on the next vids it will be fantastic. Thanks so much
Would be nice if they made RGB XLR cables. Everyone
knows RGB increases sample rate from 44kHz to 96kHz
I learned some things here! 😁
Glad to hear that!
Do you have a up to date video on what cables are best for condenser mics for home recording studios??? The best quality for best price? I been looking to invest in a Mogami
If it's going to be installed in walls for longer distances, you might try CAT5-shielded solutions like the Radial Catapult products I show in the video. If it's for connecting the mic temporarily, go for a cable with a rugged design - Mogami and Rapco-Horizon are good options, among others. For installed single lines, Mogami and Canare are highly-trusted brands, but expensive compared to Cat5-shielded.
@@AudioUniversity thank you for the response and feedback
❤❤❤Thanks
I'm a musician and videographer, and my motto has always been, "Give me XLR or give me death!" LOL
Using balanced connections is sound advice.
I have a question for you. I make my own cables and i've bought a spool of microphone cable for that purpose. The cable has 2 wires and a shield. When i make XLR or 3 contact TRS, i know what and where should be connected. But sometimes i need a 2 contact TRS, and i would like to use the same cable which i have. Should i use 2 wires for the contacts and just leave the shield hanging, or should i use the shield for one of the contacts and one of the wires for the other?
I have a question but maybe you don't see it. So is there any point in have shielded cables for home audio set up, or are the cable usually so short as to not cause an issue with picking up external noise?
At such short distances, you’ll probably be using an unbalanced connection like RCA.
@@AudioUniversity thank you for your reply.
If one is running a multi-channel setup and is also looking to experience an exceptionally quiet room, then shielded cables, in my opinion, are absolutely essential. This is coming from someone who's running 9 channels (5.2.4) and has changed nearly all his cables (analogue & digital) multiple times for this very reason.
If one is looking to lower their noise floor and wishes to hear the incremental differences, I would recommend starting with the analogue cables of length first (heights, surrounds, etc)
@totalplonker824 thank you for your reply. Not an Only Fools and Horses fan are you by any chance? (The screename)
@@AlexMitchell-sj4sb lovely jubbly 😁
Is there any benefit from twisting two conductors where one is signal and the other "earth", eg as in twisting the conductors in a TS cable?
What is the difference between wireless mic like RODE wireless GO2 and wireless mic from shure & sennheiser??? Can I connect wireless mic from RODE to a analog mixer using 3.5mm to XLR cable ??
Brilliant video! You are like watching someone from the 1950s (in a good way) because you've obviously read books too!
I build my own valve based hifi, the difference moving from unbalanced to balanced is incredible. I knew about common mode rejection but had forgotten about differential mode gain, thanks! I met Aspen Pitman of Groove Tubes in 1997 (lovely guy) and he always raved about transformer coupled balanced connections, game changer for audio! Ethernet cables are twisted to a tight spec to reject interferrance to their high data rate and are actually really good for audio - ditto, old telephone cables are really good for digital, as Imperial College in lonodn found out to their great saving in 2000
the utp standard for cat 5 and 6 ethernet doesnt allow for cables to be longer than a 100meters because you start to lose signal and cause latency at that point, if you want a longer, non standard cable you have to manufacture it yourself, it surprised me that the same cable using analog audio was able to run way longer with little so little loss (compared to the same cable transporting ethernet).
in a way this makes this system extremely reliable as there's no way you will accidentally buy an utp cable longer than the norm while shopping for gear.
I love it when problems are solved via analog solutions. Today, most companies want a digital solution.
I could make twice as long a video discussing everything left out of this one, but the title question is more or less left unanswered. The answer is different makes of the same basic cable design don't have noticeable affect on audio quality if in fully working condition. Cables do vary in capacitance but a good line driver implementation will resist cable capacitance effects, that's a test not of the cable but of the implementation. A bass guitar isn't a good line driver in that sense. You advocate braided shielding but Gotham's design apparently tests out a bit better than braiding. CMRR is a giant discussion of which the cable is the least of it. Yes it's good to run balanced and shielded at low impedances and minimal run lengths, but Jimi Hendrix apparently liked the tone of long cable lengths from his guitar and he seemed to impress people with it. Nowadays, if people aren't just miming to a recording, the preamps are on stage and front of house is more or less a remote controller. No I don't take your students as interns.
One time i noticed that there was a weird noise in my vocal recordings in my home studio, it was driving me nuts because I didnt know what was causing it, then i found out that my RGB keyboard was emitting a crap ton of EMI interference, i turned off the lights on it and the noise vanished. The more you learn haha
I have to connect audio output from my PC to a audio Mixer which is more than 15 meter.
Option1: Connecting Line output from PC to mixer using a DI box
Option2: using a HDMI cable and Audio Deembedder
Which option is best???
If you need multichannel surround, use the HDMI Audio De-embedder. If you just need stereo, either option is ok.
ah math! love this concept.
Isn't RFI just a part of EMI? Why was it mentioned separately?
I wanted to clarify that the noise could come from nearby audio circuits or wireless transmissions.
There is a big difference between an unbalanced hi impedance instrument signal and a line level signal. It is not necessary to use balanced cables when dealing with line level signals in a home studio situation. It actually creates an extra failure point. The quality of the cable also makes almost no difference, when you are dealing with line levels.
With instrument cables, there is a slight difference in tone and/or audio quality from one cable to the next, but the most expensive cable does not always outperform less expensive cables. A Mogami cable will usually sound just as good, if slightly different, compared to the most expensive cables. Once your instrument signal has been converted to low impedance, by going through the buffer stage of a guitar pedal for instance, the rest of the cables in chain also make very little difference. Spend you money on the cable that carries the high impedance signal from your instrument. Don’t worry about the rest.
Passive guitar pickups are low impedance, fuzz pedals need to see this else they don't work right. Been playing in bands for 35 years and never needed a cable over 15-20ft. I gig 3 times a week, every week. Festivals, clubs, radio stations and pubs. Just use a quality cotton/cloth cable with stainless mono Neutrik jacks for guitar/bass. Connect the shield at one end only and plug that end into your guitar. Noiseless and no ground loops from the amp.
passive guitar pickups are high impedance. Unless you are using two conductor wire, if you don’t connect the shield at both ends, you won’t get any signal because you won’t complete the circuit. And if you do use two wires, but only connect one side of the shield, the shield will still be attached to both ends because it will still be connected to the ground wire. The method you’re talking about would apply to balanced line level signals, not unbalanced, high impedance instrument signals.
Many, but not all, fuzz and wah pedals need to see a high impedance signal.
@@APMTenants A single coil can be around 4-8k, a humbucker 6-18k, that's low impedance. Only active pickups have high impedance of 1 mega ohm or more. And an audio signal is AC, only 1 signal wire, no need to 'complete the circuit' as it's not a loop. Maybe you're confused with how audio AC works, active vs passive. Even D'Addario sell guitar cables shielded one end only. Planet Waves cables.
High impedance is about 1k and above. Below that is low impedance.
Active pickups are LOW IMPEDANCE, because they run through ACTIVE electronics that convert the signal to low impedance. Without the electronics, then it would be high impedance.
No man, you cannot get sound out of a guitar pickup with just one wire and no ground; that defies the laws of physics. The type of cable you’re talking about is a twin axial cable, meaning it has TWO wires, and it does nothing when connected between your guitar and amp for the reason I already explained.
You need to use google and go back to school. I’m going to ignore any further responses because it’s just too ignorant for me to deal with. Playing in bands does not qualify you as an electronics expert. This is noob level bs
Never realised I could use “ordinary” cat.5 ethernet cable for audio purposes.
Excellent video. And for anybody else if you haven't seen Dave rats versions he takes it to another extreme.
This is great. Is the ethernet system bidirectional. I help with a middle school drama club and need to send signal to stage monitors, a monitor in another room for off-stage choir (as well as choir microphone in that room), etc. Have a workable system but have to lay down (and take up) a lot of XLR cable for each show. Wondering if I could reduce these by multiples of 4? Thanks for any advice.
Yes. The catapult systems are by directional. If you need to use one of the channels in the opposite direction, you can use a male-to-male or female-to-female XLR turn around adapter on either side.
@@AudioUniversity Thanks so much. Your channel really helps out this retired-microbiologist-dad/"sound engineer"! (FYI- I already use Radial DI boxes 👏)
Everyone can have their own proof or opinion but here are my experiences:
1. I used to have my studio wired with generic audio cables and monster cable cables. I had buzzing and other noise in the signal path. I switched to Mogami and there is no noise at all.
2. had RJ45 connectors and cat6 cable from Amazon for digital snake about 150 feet long, had drop outs quite often, the system was almost unusable. Switched to cable and RJ45 connectors bought at local electrical store, and now have 0 problems.
Yes. The quality of cable and connector construction will vary.
AES ABU cables with generic ones make a huge difference.