Designer in wall wiring - worth it?


I have two dedicated outlets for my system using standard 12 gauge with short runs of about 15' to the breaker box. I used 12 gauge in this case due to the very short runs. I have recently experienced some very positive results with Audience speaker and ethernet cables, and it got me thinking it would not be crazy money to try the Audience in-wall shielded 10 gauge cable. Has anyone tried the Audience cable or other "designer" AC cabling? Did you find it to be a significant upgrade?

 

zlone

@jea48  this is the one I was looking at, and it does say it has a EGC.

Industry Compliances:

 

UL 1569

UL 44

ICEA S-95-658/NEMA WC70

UL Type MC-600 volts, UL File # E90496

NEC Type XHW-2 conductors

Flame Test Compliances:

 

IEEE 383 (70,000 BTU/hr)

UL 1581 (70,000 BTU/hr)

IEEE 1202 (70,000 BTU/hr) CSA FT4

ICEA T-29 520 (210,000 BTU/hr)

Other Compliances:

 

EPA 40 CFR, Part 261 for leachable lead

content per TCLP method

OSHA Acceptable

RoHS Compliant

@jea48 I am now in full agreement. If I could find all of that information on the Audience site, I would give it some credence. The Cable Company does not carry any weight with me. I have formally nixed this idea. If it caused a fire, insurance could null my coverage. Not worth it. 

@kennyc Yeah, it’s a stretch. But dedicated lines if you don’t already have them will be huge.

On to other mindless tweaking like checking torque.

 

@invalid Said:

@jea48  this is the one I was looking at, and it does say it has a EGC.

Where does it say that?

.

Audience In-Wall AC cable

 Look at the two pictures shown  in the article. The first one only shows a shielding drain wire. Not an EGC, (Equipment Grounding Conductor) wire.

The second picture you can clearly see the cable jacket says CL3  (rated ???).

.

@kennyc  & @zlone 

10/2 AWG solid copper MC (Metal Clad) cable, Aluminum Clad, is very good for branch circuit wiring. Better than Romex, imo.

"MC" NOT "AC/BX"  

 

Optimized Power Distribution and Grounding for Audio, Video and Electronic Systems       

Pages 11, 12, & 13.

Metal Clad (MC) is manufactured in both steel and aluminum with twisted conductors that help reduce AC magnetic fields. Although the steel jacket helps reduce AC magnetic fields, the twisting of conductors has the greatest effect on reducing these fields. Another benefit is the constant symmetry of the phase conductors with respect to the grounding conductor which greatly reduces voltage induction on the grounding wire. (NEC article: 330

Two conductor plus 1 ground MC (Metal Clad) is a good choice for Non-Isolated Ground A/V systems. MC cable contains a safety grounding conductor (wire). The three conductors in the MC cable (Line, Neutral and Ground) are uniformly twisted, reducing both induced voltages on the ground wire and radiated AC magnetic fields. The NEC article 250.118 (10)a prohibits the use of this cable for isolated ground circuits because the metal jacket is not considered a grounding conductor, and it is not rated for fault current. 

AC Magnetic Field Strengths from Different Wiring Types
AC current flowing through a conductor will create an AC magnetic field along the entire length of the wire, the magnitude of which will vary in proportion to the amount of current. This field may inductively couple noise voltage to signal wires running parallel, which can result in hum and buzz. The longer the run of these parallel wires, the greater the inductively coupled noise voltage will be. Cable shields, whether braid and/or foil type, cannot attenuate AC magnetic fields, they ONLY attenuate electric fields

Phasing of Supply Conductors

.......  Furthermore, if a signal cable is connecting two pieces of
ungrounded equipment powered from opposite phases, the leakage current flowing in it will increase (causing more noise) as compared to powering the equipment from the same phase

Read page 25

.

Ground Myths

page 28

.

Maybe a 180 turn.

After looking at the Cable Company Audience spec also posted by @jea48 above, then calculating I’d need ~ 70ft of AC wall cable which is ~$1500, and considering both Enjoy The Music positive review and Audience’s established long lived positive reputation, I might go this route if I can verify that it’s completely compliant with government safety standards maybe by a licensed electrician. I’m seeking the lowest noise floor for my highly transparent system.