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Belden 9497 as RCA Cable?!

Greetings;

I being wanted to upgrade my RCA cables on my hi-fi "ish" stereo system. Right now I have some Amazon RCA nothing wrong with them, I'm just trying to clear the back of my system (too messy) and make them the right length so I don't have a mess on the back. Can I use Belden 9497 (twisted pair wire) as RCA cable? Or should I use Belden 8402 shielded cable? I saw some pictures of people using twisted pair wire but not quite sure if would affect the quality of the audio. twisted pair wire is$0.99 per foot and shielded wire is $4.74 per foot. That's without the RCA plugs.

Any advice will be appreciated!

Thank you!

erivera1990
erik_squires
16,049 posts
 

Belden 9497 appears to be 16 guage wire which is very thick for the connectors so I'd advise against it for the difficulty you will have attaching it and getting the connector fit right. 

 

erivera1990 OP
52 posts
 

@mattmiller 

Thank you for your response.

I want bright/ great sounding even. I read if I want bring audio I need to use unshielded wire, is that a thing? 

 

erivera1990 OP
52 posts
 

@erik_squires 

Thank you for your response.

The connectors that I'm planning to use the inside diameter is .23 inch I think it should work (or right there on the money). Good observation, thank you!

 

 

 

billwojo
397 posts
 

I always use good shielded cables for line level and lower. No need to spend stupid money, check out BlueJeans cables for good honest cables. They also have all the technical data on each cable type, not something written by some ad writer with all kinds of flowery words and BS.

 

BillWojo

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christian
79 posts
 

...which is very thick for the connectors so I'd advise against it for the difficulty you will have attaching it...

+1; you don't need uber thick cables for the line-level runs.  You definitely don't want to be pulling and yanking back there to get thick RCAs to fit snug either.

I always use good shielded cables for line level and lower.

Agree here, too.  One exception, however, is Kimber's PBJ (and possibly others from Kimber of similar design - never did go higher).  They sound and look great, and at least from my experience, the noise rejection of the braided geometry is real (or I've been lucky).

But I've always qualified my stance on cables: I have a hard time discerning differences between (one school of thought), but don't want to hook up my system with HD lamp cord either (the other school of thought).  If you can hear a difference; great - go after what you can easily afford (the PBJs many years ago when I bought them were $70/1m pair; they look considerably more expensive now).

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