[soitstarts]

Hello and hope your Easter is treating you well.
I have come accross some copper shielding and am keen to use it for my signal and power wires. Its more for the looks and any benefit would be a bonus. Question is, could it be detremental?
Any info would be much appreciated.


thanks
Martin

[Jens]

Hi Martin,

I've experimented a bit with shielding on my Equilibrium Cable interconnects (I have a small production of handmade interconnects).

In that connection I made two identical interconnects, except for the shield. I could not hear any difference at all. This applies when the shield is not connected to the signal ground, but it also applies if the shield is only connected to signal ground at one end (sometimes also called pseudo-balanced).

This test was performed on my own system that incorporates an AKSA GK-1R and an AKSA 55N+.

If you are going to use the shield for internal wiring, it might even be a bonus. I would connect any shields used in this manner to earth (not signal ground), preferably using a star earth. That might give you some additional silencing of any slight hum or other noise you might have.

There shouldn't be any detrimental effects of using the shield in this manner. In fact, I am planning to use shields on some of the wires that are likely to pick up noise in my GK-1R, just to get the noise floor as far down as possible.

Cheers,

Jens

[andyr]

Hello and hope your Easter is treating you well.
I have come accross some copper shielding and am keen to use it for my signal and power wires. It's more for the looks and any benefit would be a bonus. Question is, could it be detremental?
Any info would be much appreciated.

thanks
Martin

 Hi, Martin,

1.  You can get braid by stripping it off coax of various thicknesses.  However, bare Cu will tarnish over time so you might be better off buying tinned Cu braid ... the best place I have found to buy this is Michael Percy (www.percyaudio.com).

BTW, don't use it "for looks" ... there are "sound reasons" for using it!!  

2.  I have used this braid to make up ICs for several years now (remember, Hugh recommends shielded ICs for AKSAs) but I'm starting to use it inside the case as well, from RCA sockets to PCBs.  I earth the shield to a chassis bolt near the RCAs, with the '+' and '-' wires as a twisted pair inside the braid.

The reason to do this is, as Jens posted, to reduce still further the noise level from any transformer field or RFI; plus (so I'm told by a senior Phillips sound engineer) it serves to remove the possibility of deleterious effects due to signal cable microphony.

However, for best results you should really enclose your signal wire twisted pair in a cotton bootlace (cotton is a "good" dielectric), to space the wires away from the braid - otherwise the electrical field around the signal wires is negatively impacted by having earth close by (and doing this is a real PITA!!).

3.  Putting earthed braid around the twisted pair of an AC mains wire would theoretically stop the associated radiated magnetic field from impacting the signal wires and PCBs.  However, likewise I suggest the AC wires should be enclosed in cotton, for spacing reasons.

Regards,

Andy

[soitstarts]

Thanks a lot guys..
Like the name says.. So it starts..