Cable management....crossing at right angles or


Good morning,

I have been out of the hobby for a while, and now just getting things back into my system.

No matter how I try, I can't keep my cables isolated from each other, especially speaker and power. Is there anything besides the old saying of trying to cross at right angles, something..copper tape/Faraday sheets that you can put on the cables when they cross to reduce-eliminate interference or distortion/ EMI RFI?

Thanks,

Randy

 

randu

From bitter experience it is clear that cables move around in the night and tie themselves up in impossible knots. FACT

Agree that this shouldn’t matter - other than phono cables. If you’re really experiencing a problem or want to be anal - a little trick from the world of Fire Alarm  notification wiring - where this does happen often and is heard. It requires custom cables. Use a shielded cable. Decide which end has the larger transformer / ground sink. Land the shield on that end. On the other end, pull the shield back a couple inches over the insulation and make certain it’s not in contact with anything.  Always twist your pairs. 
 

it helps to know what your up against - AC induction vs RF interference. Either way, FA guys have been doing this for years. 

Thanks to everyone that responded, I'm really not obsessed with it. I was just curious if there was any way to better isolate things than what I'm doing.

It is good(?) to know that other people struggle with the same thing trying to just get their cables organized and it is just about an impossible job. That's why I wondered if there was anything to help.

Awhile back, I had some sheets from 3M that has some kind of shielding that I used, but of course those disappeared both from my supply and also from the marketplace. So I'll just happily move on and relax. And listen, like we are all supposed to do, right?

I always hear and read about how cables even most of the cheap ones are 

shielded. Don’t almost all cable manufacturers brag about this and talk about all the 

engineering that goes into this. I know in the automotive 

industry there used to be a lot of problems with crosstalk 

between computers and wires. We finally found that by twisting the wires on the bus lines these are the wires that carry all the communication between the computers. If we twisted them and made sure no other wires got in between them this would take care of all RFI problems also where they could not be twisted if we ran other wires at a 90 degree angle to them would also 

eliminate any RFI and crosstalk 

Tony 1954, same situation here. Then when I get them somewhat tidy, I end up back in there replacing cables or components.