To achieve high-quality sound when installing an audio system, you need to pay attention to all components - speakers, amplifiers and, of course, speaker cable. Get high quality sound even from an expensive system does not work if you use a conventional wire. Shielded cable - this is what you must connect the source to the playback devices. Otherwise, you will have to listen to interference in between songs.
Acoustic cable
A modern acoustic cable is two or more conductors of electric current placed in insulation from polyvinyl chloride, Teflon, polyurethane and other polymeric materials. The wires are electrically identical, but are marked in a different color so that the user does not reverse the polarity during connection, device combination.
The main material is copper. It has the least electrical resistance, which allows to achieve high quality sound. However, during installation, the cable may pass near power lines. Because of this, magnetic fields and eddy currents will inevitably arise, which will significantly reduce the sound quality.
To avoid such a problem, use a special wire - shielded. Such a cable has special protection made of metal or plastic, which is a kind of "shield" from electromagnetic interference.
Types of speaker cables
In order for a conventional shielded wire to cope with protection against interference, it must be connected to the ground, that is, ground. In some cases, this action is simply impossible. That is why a balanced cable was invented. If in an ordinary conductor there is only one central “rod” that carries the main signal, then in the balanced cable there are two of them - hot and cold. They both carry the same information, but with different "similarities." The effectiveness of such a line depends on the balance of such rods.
Star Quad cables have good protection, in which two pairs of “rods” are insulated and connected in parallel with each other, which ensures a high level of protection. Specialists distinguish the so-called conductive wire, shielded plastic. This type of cable is effective over short distances, for example, when installing an audio system in a car.
In a separate group, you can select microphone cables in which the protection is made of woven material. But the most versatile and providing the best protection are wires with a foil screen.
Foil Wires
Cables with foil protection are distinguished between themselves by the material of which the screen is made, as well as by the type of braid.
There are four types of electromagnetic protection:
- foil copper or aluminum screen - provides good protection of conductors from EM interference, but is susceptible to bends, turns (protection bursts and cracks);
- copper mesh braid - a wire shielded in this way creates the best protection against interference, but has a very high price (used in professional equipment);
- a spiral braid made of copper or other non-ferrous metals - such a cable is almost not susceptible to mechanical stress and protects well from interference.
The fourth type is a cable with a combined screen, in which the useful properties of a continuous foil and various types of braiding are combined. They differ in average price, a large assortment and high rates of protection.
Conductor Resistance and Sound Quality
A decisive influence on sound quality is provided by the electrical resistivity of the conductor. Acoustic line resistance depends on several indicators - material, cross-sectional area and cable length.
The best sound quality is able to provide only a copper wire, shielded foil. At the same time, at least 20 cores must be under the insulation layer. If also the cross-sectional area does not exceed 2.5 mm
2 , and the cable length is within 3 meters, then the resistance will be zero. Accordingly, the sound quality with such a wire will be the best.
The parameters of the conductor also affect the equipment. So, long wires have a large capacitance and inductance, which creates an additional load on the amplifier.
Interconnect cables
An interblock cable is a regular conductor, at the ends of which there are special plugs for connecting to equipment, or to blocks. Interconnected shielded cables, wires have some differences from conventional speaker lines.
In particular, the sound quality here does not depend on the type of protection, but on the material of manufacture. You can identify the material by marking:
- SSs HI END SP - this is the designation of acoustic lines made of copper with a silver coating, capable of creating the best sound quality.
- EMT OFC sc - the abbreviation is used to denote oxygen-free copper wires; they are second only to the quality of the transmitted signal.
- AHpsc 16 GA are simply high quality conductors.
If you are looking for cables that can transmit a signal without any distortion, then you should pay attention to instances made entirely of silver. Such products cost hundreds of dollars per 1 meter, but the quality of the signal transmitted by them cannot be compared.
Stranded cables
A special place in the market of acoustic equipment is shielded stranded wire.
In such a conductor, under a layer of insulation there are several veins intertwined with each other. They have a number of advantages over single-core cables:
- High elasticity - kinks, turns and other mechanical stress are not afraid of wires.
- Small current losses - due to the transmission of a signal by several “rods” at once.
- High-quality switching - processes that occur in the first seconds after a short circuit (when switching a toggle switch, for example) do not have any effect.
- High reliability and durability - the service life of such products is an order of magnitude higher than that of single-core ones.
This type of cable has certain disadvantages. The main one is high cost. So, the price for a shielded two-wire wire can reach 1,500 rudders. In addition, such conductors are not intended for use in high-frequency networks.