If you don't believe it do what i did accidentally. I left a pair of interconnects hooked up to my preamp but nothing else. I was trying to track down what bad tube in my system was causing the static and found them, disconnected them and problem solved! That being said that is the only RF related issue I have experienced and I live in a downtown DC condo.
RF in the home - Fact or Fiction?
For many years I have always believed that screened cables were having a positive effect on my audio system.
My Van den Hul D102 III's are a balanced cable with a tripple shield and configured with a floating shield to minimize RF getting to the next level of amplification.
Everything was great, then I decided to try a pair of one meter unsheilded interconnects. From what I have read, their "twisted pair geometry" is responsible for their ability to reject RF and having used them for a while now, I can report that I have never witnessed any RF contamination.
Others using the same cables up to 8ft long have also reported no RF contmination either.
Maybe my environment is just very quiet...
- a two story detached house in the burbs.
- dedicated power line to the audio system
- a listening room that is on the opposite side of the house to "polution sources" - kitchen and laundry room
- I leave lots of space between all cables
- all of my components chassis are grounded
- all my power cables are shielded and grounded to the mains supply end, minimizing their RF effect
Companies like Van den Hul make cables for industry and as such they tend to be located in an extremely "noisy" envionment.
However, the home contains only a small fraction of the eletrical equipment of say, a recording studio.
So my question is...
"is RF as much of an issue in the home audio system as we tend to believe?"
It would be interesting to know what challenges other Agon'ers have overcome pertaining to RF issues and their environments and the impact shielded cables played in their resolution.
Also, if anyone who has had to replace braided or twisted pair geometry cables with shielded cables it would be interesting to understand why.
Please leave ground loop hum issues for a seperate thread - that's a whole different topic.
Thanks in advance for any input :-)
My Van den Hul D102 III's are a balanced cable with a tripple shield and configured with a floating shield to minimize RF getting to the next level of amplification.
Everything was great, then I decided to try a pair of one meter unsheilded interconnects. From what I have read, their "twisted pair geometry" is responsible for their ability to reject RF and having used them for a while now, I can report that I have never witnessed any RF contamination.
Others using the same cables up to 8ft long have also reported no RF contmination either.
Maybe my environment is just very quiet...
- a two story detached house in the burbs.
- dedicated power line to the audio system
- a listening room that is on the opposite side of the house to "polution sources" - kitchen and laundry room
- I leave lots of space between all cables
- all of my components chassis are grounded
- all my power cables are shielded and grounded to the mains supply end, minimizing their RF effect
Companies like Van den Hul make cables for industry and as such they tend to be located in an extremely "noisy" envionment.
However, the home contains only a small fraction of the eletrical equipment of say, a recording studio.
So my question is...
"is RF as much of an issue in the home audio system as we tend to believe?"
It would be interesting to know what challenges other Agon'ers have overcome pertaining to RF issues and their environments and the impact shielded cables played in their resolution.
Also, if anyone who has had to replace braided or twisted pair geometry cables with shielded cables it would be interesting to understand why.
Please leave ground loop hum issues for a seperate thread - that's a whole different topic.
Thanks in advance for any input :-)