Shielded or Unshielded analog audio cables

[oobymach]

Is there a noticeable difference in sound using shielded vs unshielded for ultra high quality audio (like dsd or flac)? Cable in question is a 3ft 3.5mm to 3.5mm.

I'm asking because my headphones use an unshielded cable, I got an unshielded patch cable today and it sounds really clear but I can't exactly easily compare it with a shielded one, is there really a difference? I read that shielding causes induction so is a generic (copper) unshielded cable really better than the shielded variety for analog sound?

From Vovox cables "For studios we generally suggest to use unshielded balanced cables as they offer better sound quality."

Is there any truth to this?

 

[thesmokingman]

There shouldn't be any difference especially since you don't have any emi issues to begin with. Also, never trust what a cable company says since they want to buy their cables and view as something other than the commodity that they are.

 

[R-T-B]

Is there any truth to this?

Yes. Balanced cables feature two streams that crosscheck each other and cancel out literally all noise attributable to interference, making shielding useless. Unbalanced cables generally benefit from shielding.

There is no way you can use balanced cables without expensive gear though, they don't work with standard input/outputs like stereojack or RCA. Just get some average shielded, unbalanced cables and call it a day. Monoprice RCA or similar is fine. Thank me later.

As an arbitrary overpriced example, go here and select balanced (2nd image) to see the pinout difference:

Schiit Audio: Audio Products Made in USA

www.schiit.com

 

[oobymach]

I'm still considering buying some blank ends and some silver wire and making my own, would be far cheaper than the pricetag on some of the high end audio stuff, and silver is the best afaik for analog sound.

 

[R-T-B]

I'm still considering buying some blank ends and some silver wire and making my own, would be far cheaper than the pricetag on some of the high end audio stuff, and silver is the best afaik for analog sound.

Still going to be like a .01% return, but yes, better pricing than commercial. Keep in mind silver is stiff. I know from the example below:

I have a reel of 12 gauge silver wire (yes, large stuff, used it for battery electrodes) I used in a chemistry experiment a bit back if it helps, still a fair bit left, I think a troy ounce worth. Would sell for sub scrap rate given even pawn shops here won't take it without a mark (despite me explaining they could just uh... weigh it to confirm it's silver).

Wouldn't help a ton but you could play with it cheaply. I'd basically just ask shipping.

States?

Edit: nvm Canada. I'll keep trying to find a use for it, lol.

 

[freeagent]

I’ve got a 400 buck set of M.I.T speaker cables (left and right) and am using some 20 buck speaker cables. I like the cheap ones. Not zipcord, but still beefy. I also have some nice subwoofer cables, but a bit short so instead using red white yellow rcas that came with a ps1 I think. Can’t hear a difference. Hifi cable industry is the new snake oil salesman, well has been for decades. I used to swear up and down I could hear a difference. Nah. The old rule of thumb was to spend at least 30% of the cost of your hifi on cables.

Speaking of silver, I had an old Harmon/Kardon hk680i that had silver wire in the output stage. That amp was such an effing beast, I miss it.

 

[oobymach]

Still going to be like a .01% return, but yes, better pricing than commercial. Keep in mind silver is stiff. I know from the example below:

I have some experience with silver, I bypassed the flat pcb circuit in my audio switch box with some heavy silver wire just to test it but without matching cables I feel like I could get more out of my setup. I know copper vs silver is like 398/400 for conductivity but I noticed soldering the silver wire that the whole wire got hot at once which makes me think I could benefit from the complete silver wire treatment, although I probably won't notice the difference it's very tempting.

 

[holyprof]

Using shielded cable for a 3 ft headphone connection is absolutely useless. Headphone output is low-impedance with strong signal.
Shielded cables matter when you are dealing with very weak to weak signals (microphone to mic. amp., mic amp to power amp. / mixer table / PC).

Also, is your headphone output balanced? 3.5 mm jacks are generally unbalanced (left, right and common). The only way to get balanced output from a 3.5 mm jack is to have only one channel.

TLDR: pretty much what R-T-B wrote:

There is no way you can use balanced cables without expensive gear though, they don't work with standard input/outputs like stereojack or RCA. Just get some average shielded, unbalanced cables and call it a day. Monoprice RCA or similar is fine. Thank me later.

 

[delshay]

If I remember correctly, real silver turns red under a acid test.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

Headphones don't have enough power for crosstalk to be a problem. If the cable isn't running next to high power, unshielded cables, it doesn't need to be shielded.

If you're not hearing interference (i.e. a buzz) you don't need shielded cables.

 

[GlacierNine]

I have some experience with silver, I bypassed the flat pcb circuit in my audio switch box with some heavy silver wire just to test it but without matching cables I feel like I could get more out of my setup. I know copper vs silver is like 398/400 for conductivity but I noticed soldering the silver wire that the whole wire got hot at once which makes me think I could benefit from the complete silver wire treatment, although I probably won't notice the difference it's very tempting.

The thing is that conductivity isn't what helps the sound. Capacitance is. Low capacitance = less high frequency roll-off in a long cable run.

Thing is, even then, you're talking upwards of 30 feet before the difference is really audible, and that's with high-impedance sources like guitar pickups, which are more susceptible.

In a buffered circuit or a short length, you'll hear no difference unless you're going big placebo.

 

[micropage7]

Shielded is better protection to get better quality but you can't rely on that alone, first you need to separate power and sound cable to avoid any interfere

 

[Prime2515102]

Are you talking about passive headphones? That's already an amplified signal, there is no need for shielding - shielding is to prevent interference from entering a line-level cable so that it doesn't get amplified at a later stage - with no amplification, it can't be heard.

Balanced cables are also for line-level signals.

A 3-foot cable being used after a power amplifier would have so little resistance and capacitance that I doubt using silver would have any effect at all on the sound quality. You would be better off experimenting with various gauges of copper.

Don't go too large though because headphone amplifiers are very low power and will have a difficult time driving thick wire. I probably wouldn't go smaller than 20, but something in the 22-28 range would probably be good. If you do use silver, the upper end of that range would be fine.

There is also the option of silver plated copper. AC signals (which audio signals are) have a "skin effect" where it travels mostly on the outermost surface of a conductor, so you would get some of the benefit of silver while saving quite a bit on the cost. There is also the litz wire mentioned in that article available for audio purposes but I think that gets pretty expensive.

 

[GlacierNine]

Are you talking about passive headphones? That's already an amplified signal, there is no need for shielding - shielding is to prevent interference from entering a line-level cable so that it doesn't get amplified at a later stage - with no amplification, it can't be heard.

Balanced cables are also for line-level signals.

A 3-foot cable being used after a power amplifier would have so little resistance and capacitance that I doubt using silver would have any effect at all on the sound quality. You would be better off experimenting with various gauges of copper.

Don't go too large though because headphone amplifiers are very low power and will have a difficult time driving thick wire. I probably wouldn't go smaller than 20, but something in the 22-28 range would probably be good. If you do use silver, the upper end of that range would be fine.

There is also the option of silver plated copper. AC signals (which audio signals are) have a "skin effect" where it travels mostly on the outermost surface of a conductor, so you would get some of the benefit of silver while saving quite a bit on the cost. There is also the litz wire mentioned in that article available for audio purposes but I think that gets pretty expensive.

Neither the silver plated, nor the litz wire, have an audible effect, and certainly not over such short distances.

Litz wire is good for ensuring signal integrity in some cases, but it's effects are only really beneficial at frequencies below hundreds of KHz. For audio it's useless.

The silver plate is also effectively useless, it just... doesn't actually do anything. And even if it did it would only do it over much longer distances than we're talking about here.