when i bought this equipment i also got the shop (shadow audio, great guys) to get me a "Bryston" balanced 0.5 mtr interconnect costing me £110 which was sourced through PMC (its a british company that supplies the cable branded as bryston to bryston apparently) when I recieved this interconnect I discovered that it was just a bog standard interconnect lead using simple (but decent i guess) microphone cable with no dielectic or any shielding of any kind. VERY disapointing and was a total ripp-off.
Do I get it right, Bryston balanced interconnects do not have any shielding?
If it is true, I would definitely like to try it.
I am not 100% certain but it would seem that I prefer balanced cables with little or no shielding, and that applies to power cables as well, for example I do not like those with heavy shielding and ferrite particles embedded in outer skin.
Not sure what you mean by no dielectric, there ought to be some, it is not bare wire?
James, could you please comment on no shielding story?
Hi Sasha,
I have been experimenting with Balanced cables having no shield - or more correctly shield connected at one end only or not at all. I would be interested on you elaborating on your comments above.
james
James,
It was my impression, the margin of error is quite high as I did not have let’s say 10 ICs or power cables for side to side comparison, but in general I find the sound more open and dynamically less restricted with cables of such construction.
For this reason I for example ended up using stock power cables with my 7B SST amps for now, it seemed to me that once you have an appropriate gauge the less is more, did not like those with elaborate multiple shielding. I did find in the end a power cable that I will use on all the gear including amps (it is just a bulk wire, not a commercially made power cable), heard in my system and liked it, once I am done with my speakers I will start making these power cables (wire + some hospital grade connectors). This wire has shielding though, but simple one.
And I ended up with VDH wire for my balanced interconnects, again similar experience based on few ICs I tried. And I like balanced ICs better than single ended regardless.
I tried to rationalize this, one explanation could be that combined dielectric properties of all those materials used in such elaborate applications result in signal smearing, or in case of power cables result in undesired impedance, inductivity?
The same reason why capacitors sound different?
Anyway, I was wondering what the end result would be if balanced IC was made of copper wire with very thin insulator, maybe a coat of something to prevent oxidation, and no shielding of any kind?
Assuming your place is not RF polluted, why would you need shield on balanced IC anyway?