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. You will not be able to get high quality sound even from an expensive system if you use a regular wire. Shielded cable - this is how you should connect the signal source to the playback devices. Otherwise, you will end up listening to noise between songs.
Speaker cable
Modern speaker cable consists of two or more conductors of electric current, placed in insulation made of PVC, Teflon, polyurethane and other polymeric materials. The wires are electrically identical, but are marked with a different color so that the user does not mix up the polarity during connection, combining devices.
Copper is the main material. It has the lowest electrical resistance, which allows you to achieve high sound quality. However, duringcable laying time can pass near power lines. Because of this, magnetic fields, eddy currents, will inevitably arise, which will significantly reduce the sound quality.
To avoid this problem, use a special wire - shielded. Such a cable has a special protection made of metal or plastic, which is a kind of "screen" from electromagnetic interference.
Types of speaker cables
In order for an ordinary shielded wire to cope with interference protection, it must be connected to the ground, that is, grounded. In some cases, this action is simply not possible. That is why the balanced cable was invented. If in an ordinary conductor there is only one central “rod” that carries the main signal, then in a balanced cable there are two of them - hot and cold. They both carry the same information, but with different "similarity". 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 to each other, which achieves a high level of protection. Specialists also distinguish the so-called conductive wire, shielded with plastic. This type of cable is effective over short distances, such as when installing an audio system in a car.
Microphone cables can be distinguished into a separate group, in which the protection is made of woven material. But the most versatile and provide the best protection are foil shielded wires.
Foil-protected wires
Cable withfoil protection differ from each other in the material from which the screen is made, as well as the type of braid.
There are four types of electromagnetic protection in total:
- foiled copper or aluminum shield - provides good EMI protection for conductors, but is susceptible to bending, twisting (protection bursts and cracks);
- copper mesh braid - wire shielded in this way provides the best protection against interference, but is very expensive (used in professional equipment);
- Spiral braid made of copper or other non-ferrous metals - such a cable is almost not susceptible to mechanical stress and well protects against interference.
The fourth type is a cable with a combined screen, which combines the useful properties of a solid foil and various types of braid. They are distinguished by an average price, a large assortment and high protection rates.
Conductor resistance and sound quality
The electrical resistivity of the conductor has a decisive influence on the sound quality. Speaker line impedance depends on several parameters - material, cross-sectional area and cable length.
The best sound quality can only be provided by a copper wire shielded with foil. At the same time, at least 20 wires must be under the insulation layer. If, however, the cross-sectional area does not exceed 2.5 mm2, and the cable lengthwill be 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. For example, long wires have a lot of capacitance and inductance, which creates an additional load on the amplifier.
Interconnect cables
An interconnect cable is a regular conductor, at the ends of which there are special plugs for connecting to equipment or blocks. Interconnect shielded cables, wires have some difference from ordinary 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 silver coating, capable of creating the best sound quality.
- EMT OFC sc - an abbreviation used to denote wires made of oxygen-free copper, the quality of the transmitted signal is second only to the previous representative.
- AHpsc 16 GA - simply high quality conductors.
If you are looking for cables that can transmit a signal without any distortion, then you should pay attention to copies made entirely of silver. These products cost hundreds of dollars per meter, but the signal quality they transmit cannot be compared.
Multicore cables
A special place in the acoustic equipment market is shielded wirestranded.
In such a conductor, under a layer of insulation, there are several strands intertwined. They have a number of advantages over single core cables:
- High elasticity - the wires are not afraid of kinks, turns and other mechanical stress.
- Low current loss - due to signal transmission by several "rods" at once.
- High-quality switching - processes occurring in the first seconds after a short circuit (when switching a toggle switch, for example) have no effect.
- High reliability and durability - the service life of such products is an order of magnitude higher than that of single-core.
This type of cable has certain disadvantages. Chief among them is the high cost. So, the price for a shielded two-core wire can reach 1500 rudders. In addition, such conductors are not designed to work in high-frequency networks.
