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How essential is shielding?

Both my analog interconnects and my speaker cables are unshielded, yet my system is pretty much dead quiet. This is making me wonder whether the importance of shielding is sometimes exaggerated.

The majority of cable manufacturers seem to emphasize shielding as an essential feature of design. I don't doubt that there are many situations where shielding is both necessary and effective. But my results with unshielded cables makes me suspect that there are also situations where shielding is unnecessary or even detrimental, and that these situations may be more common than would be suggested by the dominance of shielded designs.

How essential do you think shielding is?

Thanks for any input,
Bryon
bryoncunningham
mapman's avatar
mapman
22,182 posts
 
"It is worth to mention that EMI pickup of lower frequencies such as approx 500kHz generated by many class D amps can be picked-up as direct connection thru capacitance (important to keep wires apart or right angle) and not thru the electromagnetic pickup"

I wonder if this accounts for the intermittent low level high pitched whine I get on occasion with DNM Reson ICs from ARC tube pre-amp to BC ref1000ms? The pitch seems to change with exact location/orientation of the ICs. Not sure if position of the two ICs relative to each other is the determining factor or not.

I switched in a pair of MIT ICs with network boxes the other day and that appears to have eliminated the noise issue for now. I'm waiting to see if it continues in that the issue has come and gone mysteriously in the past for no clear reason.
larryi
3,978 posts
 
I once had problems with noise in my phono system so I ended up bringing my table to the dealership. At the dealer, the noise problem did not occur, but, the dealer noted that the phonocable was unshielded. He had a cable that was supposedly identical, except that it was shielded (both made by Kimber). It turned out that the shield cable solved the noise problem. I asked the dealer why he sold me the table with the unshielded cable, and we ended up doing a comparison. The unshielded cable sounded better--more open on top, and greater ease in hearing subtle detail. He said he always starts with the unshielded cable and only goes to shielded when noise intrudes.
kijanki's avatar
kijanki
4,428 posts
 
Mapman - who knows? It is a little like ghost chasing. I'm in this business (designing electronics) for a very long time (32 years) finding something strange every single day.
mapman's avatar
mapman
22,182 posts
 
The DNM reson IC configuration strongly resemble 300 ohm twin lead antenna wires. Wouldn't surprise me if they can act like antenna and pick up certain RF noise emitted by the amps perhaps. The nise exists with amps on and pre-amp off and resembles multipath noise one often picks up with FM stereo tuners. Probably not EM the more I think about it, though the buzz in the phono step up rig I eliminated with mu-metal was.
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