balanced cables - 2 or 4 core? some techy help needed please?

[eclecticmonkey]

Hi!

I posted a question last week regarding balanced interconnects. After weighing up the relative pros and cons of the advice given, I;ve decided to purchase some pro-audio cables made with Van Damme cable and terminated with Neutrik gold plated xlr connectors. So next question - I could go for XKE cable or XKE starquad cable - starquad seems better specced in terms of noise reduction etc, although probs overkill for domestic environment - but what I need to know is what difference does having a 4-core cable over a 2-core cable make in terms of signal flow etc - does it just get split over 2 cables - does that make any difference to the components/impedance/capacitance/whatever? I'm no physicist so I have no idea about this sort of stuff, just want to get the best quality sound and constucted cable for a reasonable outlay. Any/all help gratefully received.

 

[oldric_naubhoff]

first of all cables are not balanced or unbalanced, only symmetrical or asymmetrical. your electrical equipment may be balanced or unbalanced.

now you should ask yourself two questions; do I have balanced electronics, or merely unbalanced electronic with balanced inputs? and how long interconnects do I really need? if you don't have balanced electronics and you'd only need interconnects up to 1.5m I wouldn't bother with XLRs because there would be no point to it.

however, if you do have balanced electronics and you want to take advantage of what it offers then give me a link to the description of the cables because I can't think of any XLR which has 2 cores or 4 cores. I simply don't understand your question.

 

[andyjm]

I can't think of any XLR which has 2 cores or 4 cores. I simply don't understand your question.

Cables used for balanced interconnects typically have two conductor cores covered by an overall screen. The two cores are twisted together, and the theory is that any interference will get induced equally in both conductors and be nulled by differential input circuitry making the link more immune to noise than a single ended link.

Starquad arrangement has four conductor cores covered by an overall screen arranged as:

A B

B A

A is shorted to A and B shorted to B at both ends of the cable. When twisted together this approach (apparently) gives a move even exposure of the conductors to interference making the link less sensitve to uneven twisting of conductors during manufacture, and gives greater noise rejection.

FWIW the O/P is wasting his time with balanced connections in a domestic environment unless the cable runs are long, or run in close proximity to other cables.

 

[eclecticmonkey]

I do have balanced electronics. This is the spec for the 2-core cable: http://www.vdctrading.com/content/VanDamme-Cable-Specifications/VanDamme-Microphone.pdf, this is the spec for the 4-core cable: http://www.vdctrading.com/content/VanDamme-Cable-Specifications/VanDamme-Starquad.pdf

 

[andyjm]

The starquad 4 conductor cable (according to the Van Damme specs) is designed for long runs of low level interconnect (they use the example of mic cables). Seems a little overkill if you are running a 1M cable behind the cabinet.

Just how far do you plan on running this cable, and in what (electrical) environment?