Battle of RCA Cables: Mogami, Amazon, Monoprice

[Sharpi31]

Physical parameters can matter as well as electrical. Some cables are repeatedly plugged/unplugged, and pulled hard (through a wall/floor, or by musicians on stage). Others get plugged in once and sit static for life, never experiencing strain or flex.

 

[sam_adams]

Bill Whitlock of Jensen Transformers claimed copper braid shielded cable has less noise than a cable with a drain wire.

SCIN: Shield Current Induced Noise - Jim Brown

Shielding and Guarding - How to Exclude Interference-type Noise - What to Do and Why to Do It - A Rational Approach - Analog Devices, AN-347 - Alan Rich from Analogue Dialog 17-1, 1983

Noise Susceptibility in Analog and Digital Signal Processing Systems - Neil Muncy

Neutrik EMC series XLR connectors solve the pin 1 problem and the SCIN problem.

Redco makes build-to-order cables with any cable and connectors they carry.

 

[Labjr]

SCIN: Shield Current Induced Noise - Jim Brown

Shielding and Guarding - How to Exclude Interference-type Noise - What to Do and Why to Do It - A Rational Approach - Analog Devices, AN-347 - Alan Rich from Analogue Dialog 17-1, 1983

Redco makes build-to-order cables with any wire and connectors they carry.

It's a complicated subject. While I'm certainly no expert, I think Bill Whitlock is one of the smartest people around when it comes to grounding.

 

[sam_adams]

It's a complicated subject. While I'm certainly no expert, I think Bill Whitlock is one of the smartest people around when it comes to grounding.

Bill is one of the few people that I have worked with who is both an innate genius and generous mentor.

 

[jhaider]

So what exactly makes Mogami a great company if they sell cables that sound the same as others that cost 10 times less?

“Sound” is not a criteria by which normal people judge cables. The Mogami console cable mentioned above is nice because it’s thin and flexible yet durable, and comes in a number of different colors. Cost for this cable from Redco is about 0.30 USD per foot (plus shipping), plus ends. Here’s an example of these cables in use:





The cables with spiral color band and the simpler looking XLR plugs are a Canare 4ch snake terminated in the sadly NLA Neutrik “EZY” connectors that only require the shield to be stripped. The only functional difference from Mogami is lower heat tolerance. Canare outer jackets can melt a little if you use too much heat to shrink on your label. That has never happened to me with Mogami.

 

[PeteL]

Unfortunately, I made a promise to never buy from Amazon again and I will keep it.

 

[Xyrium]

Good stuff. Negligible difference between best and worst, but I've always bought Mogami and Canare because they were easy to spec when making lengths that I needed. If you purchase preassembled stuff, they aren't the cheapest. That said, I prefer Mogami simply because I like a served shield, easy to pull apart and rewind into a ground lug.

Could I pass electricity through a rusty coat hanger? Of course. Would I want to make assemblies out of coat hangers? Of course not.

 

[PeteL]

I have bought a pair of RCA cables from World Best Cables on Amazon and retuned them because the polarity was inverted compared to any of my balanced cables. Is it common for RCA cables to have inverted polarity?

?? What do you mean?
Edit, I saw you tried to explain further, but 100% it's not the RCA cable. There is no polarity.

 

[Sal1950]

Unfortunately, I made a promise to never buy from Amazon again and I will keep it.

Check out the same product on ebay, much is there also.

 

[PeteL]

Check out the same product on ebay, much is there also.

Bezos would still get my money for something labeled Amazon Basics.

 

[Blumlein 88]

Check out the same product on ebay, much is there also.

Or on reverb.com

 

[Blumlein 88]

Bezos would still get my money for something labeled Amazon Basics.

Then buy one of the alternatives mentioned that aren't Amazon basics.

 

[audio2design]

With an other Cooper link you might reduce the ground loop Voltage but doing so you also decrees the loop impedance.
There is a reason cables are "coaxial" so the the magnetic field(s) center of ground and signal are perfectly aligned and cancel out since (ideally) current the ground conductor is exactly the same as current on the signal wire and therefore there feeds cancel out.

By this canceling out the impedance is kept low therefore no voltage loss but more impotently less voltage can be picket up from external magnetic fields.

Now if You add a extra ground wire there is multiple paths for ground currents to flow and you loos this balance and cancellation effect
Basically you build a ground loop.
You may build a small area loop with very low voltage differential so it might be fine.

But simple Resistance is not doing it Common mode impedance vs. frequency and differential mode impedance vs. frequency is the interesting parameter.
And cables with ferrite cores can have higher differential mode impedance especially at higher frequency.

They are no snake oil they actually help with reel world problems if for example a PC is involved and putting lots of HF noise on the "ground"

Coax is primarily for electrostatic fields not magnetic fields. Magnetic field cancellation is more twisted pair. Most audio cables are twisted pair, even digital if AES/differential. And we are talking audio low frequency. Even the EMI wrt ground loops is low frequency and you already have two paths normally the cable and the AC cords. A connecting strap supplements the AC cords ground and reduces impedance. It will not create an additional loop path w.r.t. the signal it will reduce one that is already there. There is no "balancing" via a single coax. That's for external interference (when there) not for inherent currents already flowing on the wire due to an existing loop ...hence the ground loop.

Ferrites on cables rarely contribute much in the way of differential inductance due to the usual single winding (each direction) though the imperfect centering does create some leakage inductance. The ratio of common mode inductance to differential would typically be 100:1. High frequency transmission wrt power and ground loops is almost exclusively common mode

 

[JRS]

Mostly connector quality and flexibility are the main issues. Should be snug but not too tight and not giving too much strain on the equipment. Most problems are with HDMi connectors where I have changed to lighter more flexible cables.

Re HDMI: more than once, I have had problems with higher profile terminations that simply wouldn't fit into the receptacle. That is annoying!

 

[audio2design]

So what exactly makes Mogami a great company if they sell cables that sound the same as others that cost 10 times less?

Quality at a good price. They mainly target pro applications and their stuff is rugged. They have great shielding and you can choose parameters to maximize performance for the application.

 

[audio2design]

Star quad, the best geometry to build audio and power cables​

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www.audiocircle.com

Star quad is great for maximizing magnetic and RF rejection (and emission) but if you don't have a problem you are throwing money away and accepting higher capacitance which is not always ideal. For speaker it has low inductance.

 

[audio2design]

But this wold not be Symmetrical.


that's the good thing you find cheap 7 Strain cables and can make them yourself

7 Strain wire is common and Cheap. so you it an just "waist" one cable in the middle.

But this is not the same as a woven star-quad (or hex) geometry. These are just 7 in a twist or perhaps pairs twisted.

 

[shrimp_dude]

The MonoPrice cables you show do not have L/R markings for the pair and you may regret their "bite" on your equipment. Request a refund!

I'm constantly forgetting which cable is which when I'm fiddling with the mess of cables... should really put a tag on one to mark it

 

[audio2design]

Is "100% mesh" anything like "braid shield"?

Yes. 100% copper mesh/braid for lowest impedance.

Metalized plastic foil almost always has a wire in addition. Not concerned if the plastic is mylar. Mylar is not very flexible. But that construction is typically for lower cost cables.

 

[Holmz]

?? What do you mean?
Edit, I saw you tried to explain further, but 100% it's not the RCA cable. There is no polarity.

There is a polarity if one solders the blue and clear to the different places on the Profi RCA.