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Maybe I misread your terminology. (long)

Posted by cheap-Jack (M) on January 30, 2007 at 11:45:55

In Reply to: Ever tried braiding just two wires? posted by Allen Wright on January 30, 2007 at 07:34:25:

Hi.

Sorry, I did not (have the time to) read your cable cookbook.

This is not about the goodness of braiding or what not.

Your wrote: "use a three braid - with one wire for signal & 2 for EARTH, but only connect one end of one of these earth wires, leaving the other end flaoting. This turns this wire into a "shield" that doesn't make any connections that generate earth loops"

So I take it as one wire for incoming signal, 2 wires for grounding with one ground wire only grounded one end.

The way you wrote it confused me.

I would put it this way so that many readers, including your truly, understand better what you actually meant:

One wire for incoming signal, one wire for return signal & the third wire will act as a shield but with only the receiving (or the front) end grounded, & the driving (or the rear end) end not connected.

Technically, I would use only two wires TIGHTLY & EVENLY twisted together, & the 3rd "earth" wire should not even exist.

One wire for incoming signal & the other wire for return signal.
The twisting does the job of EMI/RFI noises cancelling as the noises picked up in one turn will be cancelled by the turn next downstream.
Also commond mode cancelling of the twisted wires inductance applies to the signal path.

But by braiding with more than 2 wires, commond mode inductance cancelling cannot apply as the return signals now go through two wires instead of one wire of the SAME size & construction of the wire carrying the incoming signals.

Even worse is in the case of Kimber with BOTH earth wires grounded.
You're correct this could generate a earthloop problem. But I am more concern about the EMI/RFI cancellation which can only happen effectively with two wires tightly twisted together.

If you look at some LAN (Cat 5e or Cat 6e) cables, special twisting technology for single pairs, with totally 4 pairs tightly jammed inside the LAN cable jacket, yet WITHOUT any shilding, can deliver up to 350MHz ultra high frquency response. Such flat hi-end response is needed for utra fast data transmission.

Same principle applies to audio interconnects.

FYI, my audiophile friend & I have been using my DIY built ICs using one single pair of 4N silver solid wires (I prefer AWG#22 for more bodiful sound), for years. NO shield. The sonics is pretty gratifying.

c-J

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