How important Is shielding with RCA wires? (Ethan Winer, new video)

@decooney  Thanks -- you're engaging his claims. Appreciated.

@thyname I never said your comment was an insult. I said your comment was ad hominem. In particular, it is a circumstantial ad hominem with an implicit appeal to motive. It's a fallacy. If instead you had commented something like, "I stopped paying attention to Mr. Winer years ago" or "I can't be bothered with Mr. Winer," or even just "I don't like Ethan," you'd be on solider ground.

It’s safer to be shielded....just like being vacinnated......or a condom, except you only have to do it once.

Non-shielded, POTENTIALLY more problematic and can be for real and easily heard (or not so easily even in other cases) as I related above. YMMV. It all depends. Like radio reception. Like most things.

I am very proud of my $30 mu metal foil shielding solution for my phono section. Allows me to use the DNMs which I strongly recommend. I think I will brag about it here until no end now like some...or one...we all know who I’m talking about? Oh wait, I did it 10 years ago..........is it too late?

I have made a lot of interconnects but almost always shielded them and then I tried a couple of sets unshielded just for kicks.  I didn't hear any noticeable difference between the shielded or unshielded cables in my system so since then I have included the shield for the reasons stated by others, and because I didn't hear any negative effect on the sound because of the shielding.  I believe there are many things that have a greater influence on how dynamic a system sounds than cable shielding.  Plus, well-regarded manufactured cables at all price ranges use shielding.

@three_easy_payments - I will try to hide all my whiskey bottles better than Mr. Winer did.

Easy - mine are nowhere near that big!

+1 @mapman ​​​​@mitch2

i recall that there was a reputable cable maker some time ago (don’t remember who now) who argued that shielding rca i-c’s could hurt the sound a little, but even then that maker admitted that there are many times/places/systems that need the benefits of proper shielding (usually in the context of truly minute phono signals and their connections), which outweighed the minor sonic decrement

i have some unshielded ic’s and but most i have are shielded - and i don’t have the same ic that is constructed with and without shielding as the only difference, so i can’t really say if it helps

and i like others here, have always use shielded connections for analog

The one possible downside to shielding is you add capacitance, and therefore risk (slightly) rolling off the high end of a signal. Math says this should not matter usually. 

Personally I build all my cables with a shield, for what it's worth.