Shielded speaker cable - is there a point?

[admin_exported]

My understanding was there was no need due to the higher signal strength compared to say that carried by interconnects; but some of the most popular cables are now shielded.

Is there not also a risk to the amplifier if contact is made with the shielding?

Anyone have any opinions on shielded vs. non-shielded speaker cable?

 

[chebby]

I believe you are right. I too cannot see much point in shielded speaker cables. (Unless you are going to tie all the mains cables and speaker cables together.)

So long as (unshielded) mains cables and speaker cables are kept more than a couple of inches apart then I can't foresee a problem.

 

[a91gti]

Ditto. It`s just something else to charge people for.

 

[Anonymous]

The only possible benefit I can think of is stopping a signal appearing on your 0-volts line, which might end up influencing the pre-amp stage of a not-particularly-good integrated amplifier. But then even that's a bit of a stretch.

 

[Anonymous]

Hi,

Thoght I'd put my two cents here.

Speaker cables can pick up radio frequency noise and feed it back to the amplifier electronics, thus having a degrading effect on its performance. Speaker cable designs use twisted geometry, sometimes combined with shielding to address this issue, and it seems to make sense. A classic example is the award winning Chord Carnival Silverscreen cable.

Kimber Kable approaches this issue by complex multi conductor twisted geometry without sheilding, which also has been a huge success.

 

[Anonymous]

Does the shielding work if it's not connected to anything? My understanding is that it is not in a speaker cable.

And is the danger to the amplifier an issue when fitting banana plugs etc?

 

[legoyoda]

Surley it makes SOME difference. I had an old Creative 4.1 PC speaker system back in my university days. This had exceptionally cheep captive cable and a LOT of it. When the PC was OFF but the speakers were on and it was late at night I would often wake up to the feint sounds of French radio coming in from all 4 speakers. It was really, really freaky the first time shielding would have eliminated this would it not?

MInd you, so would not having a tonn of excess cable piled up in the corner....

 

[Anonymous]

I don't know if the shielding on my cable does anything but the only way to route my speaker cable on my system is along the back of the tv, past 8 power cables.

Will these 8 power cables (TV, DVD, all Hifi) affect the speaker signal? I don't know. I never bothered to test.

Also, speaker cables often are pushed up against the skirting board, where the mains electricity ring is situated.

I'm just thinking out loud.

 

[Dougal1331]

legoyoda:
Surley it makes SOME difference. I had an old Creative 4.1 PC speaker system back in my university days. This had exceptionally cheep captive cable and a LOT of it. When the PC was OFF but the speakers were on and it was late at night I would often wake up to the feint sounds of French radio coming in from all 4 speakers. It was really, really freaky the first time shielding would have eliminated this would it not?

MInd you, so would not having a tonn of excess cable piled up in the corner....

Try coiling the excess cable in different ways, varying the diameter and number of coils- you may be able to find some UK pirate stations...

 

[a91gti]

Joseph73:

complex multi conductor twisted geometry without sheilding, which also has been a huge success.

I`ve got that covered buddy, I`ve been using cat6 cable for ages..

 

[gpi]

See the recent new thread titled 'Flood'. Any extra protection is worthwhile.

 

[plastic penguin]

chebby:

I believe you are right. I too cannot see much point in shielded speaker cables. (Unless you are going to tie all the mains cables and speaker cables together.)

So long as (unshielded) mains cables and speaker cables are kept more than a couple of inches apart then I can't foresee a problem.

This is probably a non sequitur comment, but doesn't it shield cables if, say for instance, you have a speaker close to a television? it's meant to, so I'm reliably informed, stop picture and sound degradation.

 

[Anonymous]

plastic penguin:chebby:

I believe you are right. I too cannot see much point in shielded speaker cables. (Unless you are going to tie all the mains cables and speaker cables together.)

So long as (unshielded) mains cables and speaker cables are kept more than a couple of inches apart then I can't foresee a problem.

This is probably a non sequitur comment, but doesn't it shield cables if, say for instance, you have a speaker close to a television? it's meant to, so I'm reliably informed, stop picture and sound degradation.

I read somewhere that because the shielding isn't connected to
anything in a speaker cable it is completely ineffective. It was
suggested that the shielding was only there to justify extra £££.
Anyone know differently?

 

[Anonymous]

leenorris78:Will these 8 power cables (TV, DVD, all Hifi) affect the speaker signal? I don't know.

If you don't know, they won't. You'd hear the hum, believe me.