Interconnect Inductance vs. Capacitance

Assuming you are referring to analog ic's carrying audio frequencies (as opposed to ic's carrying digital signals or other high frequency signals such as video), inductance is likely to be insignificant.

High capacitance may cause the highs to be rolled off, particularly if the component driving the cable has a high output impedance. That is because the output impedance of the driving component and the capacitance of the cable form a low pass filter, having a bandwidth corresponding to the product of the output impedance and the capacitance.

It is true that some very high-end cables have highish capacitance. That is one example of how some high-end cables are designed to be non-neutral. It is also an example of how cable performance can be system-dependent, because the effects of the capacitance will be dependent on component output impedance.

Regards,
-- Al

Al has given you great advice. Another source of info on this topic is from the Blue Jean Cable website.

I recently changed the preamp, from BAT VK-3iX to the Dude from TRL. I also had to get a new pair of RCA ICs between preamp and amp, as the new preamp is single ended and the previous preamp used balanced connections.

So I got a 10ft pair of Blue Jeans RCA interconnects. They seem to work fine. Another owner of the Dude preamp suggested the top line model from Audio Horizons. Their website indicated that the cable capacitance went higher and higher with their higher end models. This does not give me a warm and fussy feeling to try them.

The Dude preamp has extremely high output impedance, as the volume control is at the output. The volume attenuator has a max resistance around 100K! So I am reluctant to use ICs with higher capacitance for the reasons Al stated.

Thoughts are welcome.

PS. The Dude preamp sounds very very good even with the high output impedance.

One could share to others how to measure inductance, capacitance, and resistance if they have a Digital Volt Meter.
And explain the differences when apply to power cords or speaker cables.

One could share to others how to measure inductance, capacitance, and resistance if they have a Digital Volt Meter. And explain the differences when apply to power cords or speaker cables.

Common VOM's (volt-ohm-milliameters), whether digital or analog, can measure resistance directly. Some digital vom's also have the ability to measure capacitance. There are also separate instruments specifically designed to measure capacitance. I am not aware of any low-cost instruments that will measure inductance, although there may be some.

I had said that inductance is insignificant for interconnects carrying analog audio signals. But it may be significant in a speaker cable, if the inductance is particularly high, as a result of the cable being long and/or the inductance per unit length of the particular cable being high. In which case it would attenuate the treble somewhat (inductance attenuates or blocks high frequencies).

Unusually high capacitance in a speaker cable can cause some amplifiers to operate out of their comfort zone, or to become unstable. It will not, however, produce the kind of high frequency roll-off I described for interconnect cables, because the output impedance of a power amplifier is vastly lower than the output impedance of a line-level component.

As for power cords, obviously sufficient gauge (meaning low enough resistance) is required to support the maximum amount of current that may be drawn through it. Beyond that, my opinion is that we enter the realm of metaphysics (definition: "a priori speculation upon questions that are unanswerable to scientific observation, analysis, or experiment"), and anecdotal evidence of differences is about all we can expect.

Regards,
-- Al