Try to keep them separate especially digital for best sound.
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Every wire with current flowing through it, power or otherwise, that same current generates a magnetic field around it. Whenever a magnetic field crosses a wire it induces a current in that wire. This is principle on which transformers and phono cartridges work. So your question boils down to, is it fine to induce extraneous currents into your wires? I think not. https://systems.audiogon.com/systems/8367 |
Alright, I want to see how audiophiles organize theirs. I’m not going to the extreme of the system posted above because my OCD would not allow that kind of chaos. 🤪 I’d like to see some ideas for cable managment for audiophiles that don’t have spread out equipment like the one above. My equipment is inside a BDI credenza cabinet. |
Depending on your system, your cables, and your ears, you may or may not notice a lot of difference. Standard freebie rubber power cords are probably crappy enough it may be hard to hear any difference. Some quality cables may be shielded so there may not be much difference there either. Haven't compared enough to know for sure. What I do know for sure, I was aware of the idea long before I started paying close attention and comparing. Once I did, some things like getting speaker cables up off the floor are more obvious than keeping power cords away from each other and ICs. By the time I got to the point where I had heard the improvement well then its like a lot of things once you know its a waste of time to keep comparing comparing comparing it becomes something you just do. Look at my system, the pictures were taken from different perspectives in part to show how all the cables are kept apart as much as possible. Where they do come close they tend to cross at right angles. There's stuff behind the turntable that holds the phono lead, ground wire, etc so they aren't just dangling over PCs. Ultimately this is no different than a lot of other things- borderline insignificant to barely noticeable. Add enough barely noticeable things together however and you one day look back and realize all those little things add up to one very big thing. |
A lot of the times, that little noise you were hearing, and were putting up with was a routing issue. None of the wires touch, if it's a PS it crosses at a right angle, and at least 2 inches from any IC. I have one place where this happens. Everything else can be routed, take your time. It is an art. Grasshopper... When you can take the pebbles from my hand, you will be ready. LOL So you know, I use active OXOs, and columns with passive subs, Lots of wire...NO NOISE. ZERO, nadda, nothing... Tube, SS, combos no noise... Used a hand held AM FM radio to figure the really weird ones. XLR connections arching or bad solder joints, in the wire connections. I had cobwebs drive me nuts inside a passive preamp I made with an onboard LP filter. COBWEBS.. NO Noise. and no Yoko Ono.... same thing noise. Regards |
No touching... anywhere. The cables DO NOT TOUCH each other anywhere.. Especially POWER CORD to Interconnect. Take your time and rout just 1/2" apart on ICs, and PC. When crossing the two, a 2" gap and a Right angle, (90 deg if you can). Looks like asian dry sand ponds, rake art so to speak. All the cables look like pipe farms in refineries. Take your time, raise them off the floor. I made my own risers. Mainly to clean, and keep dust and moisture off the cable, vibration is not a big issue for me.. I use as little shielding as I can. Routing will fix it. I do twist my PC, CW though, with double grounds, one copper one silver clad. Works better than a weave.. By following the natural twist of the wire, normally Clock Wise.. Like MC said, the CABLES gotta sound good. The routing will take care of noise issues.. I've Never found a noisey cable, routing wouldn't take care of, unless the cable or connection was bad. It took a radio a couple of times, like I said. I also found cables SOUND a lot better. Nothing else, just sound better, no fancy terms, no BS, just sound BETTER, behind routing... Then leave them alone... let them settle.. Regards |
The biggest issue occurs when cables run parallel to each other. Crossing is not so bad, particularly at right angles. You are better off having a jumbled mess than having all the cables neatly organized running parallel, even if they are spaced a 1/2" apart. The amount of current that is induced in the neighboring cable is dependent on how much current is running through each cable, how close together they are, and for what distance. Having cables occasionally cross each other will result in a lot less induced current than running them parallel in close proximity for more than a very short distance. |
Thank all of you guys/gals for your input. Although I have a nice system and do hear subtle tweaks that I do but never tried keeping my power cords independent as possible. There is an art to doing the current way I have mine now, but going from now to what I have been reading here will take even MORE artistic ability. Something I may have to draw out on paper before I even begin. Everything goes into play with where each component sits to how long a power cord is to space in the cabinet. I've got lots of work to do but and the best thing about this is that...in general the costs should be FREE! YAY! Hopefully unless I need to buy a longer cable or something!!! |
You are better off having a jumbled mess than having all the cables neatly organized. Neatly organised is good, touching is bad. My .5, 2" numbers work very well, for NOISE. As I stated.. You shouldn't tell people that. This isn't a Cray supercomputer, where there is an actual reason for the wires being carefully jumbled as you stated... His system would CRC because it was digital. The errors were cause because of just what you stated. Field migration from HC lines within the box. Whopper in war games... Right.. It matters very much for noise, AS I STATED. I don't care about the gobbledygook you spouted. The magnetic field may be affected, BUT you or I can't hear the affects of it. At 30 db or a 140 db, in my systems. Whether through XLRs, RCAs or Speaker interconnects. I'm pretty sure, I'd be walking out on one of your installs, because of the floor noise. I said IC running parallel. There is NO NOISE when at least 1/2" apart, and 2" with PC. If a PC cross and IC, 90 degree, right angle, again 2" apart. They will SOUND better. Typical lineman for the county, answer, typical electrician answer. LOL I have a family chockablock full to the top of Union electricians. Top notch men.. They all learned one day at a BBQ.. The best of the best.. They learned about Stereo gear, the ones that could still hear anyway. They learned about cable direction, not one started out believing it, they all did before leaving.. One made up an RCA and we tested it. Sounded better one way than other.. The spool of cable was cooked on a cooker for 3 days. live and learn, they did... Two of the 7 actually specialize in HiFi, High Current cable installs, NOW! Go figure, they alway come to Uncle Scotty with stereo questions. Regards |
XLR cables have good common mode rejection (assuming the signal is really balanced and the receiving end is using a differential input or transformer to cancel out the common mode signals). This means that any induced signal from neighboring cables should be nearly the same on both signals within the cable, and therefore be cancelled out. So, to answer your question, it's much less likely to be an issue with balanced XLR cables than with other cables. Also, the current in balanced interconnects is fairly low (assuming reasonably high input impedance on the component you are connecting to), so the amount of coupling is likely to be low. It's probably not optimal to bundle them tightly together, but recording studios will often run lots of balanced cables through the same conduit without issue. |