Using ATX wire for a balanced cable

[adi518]

Going through the curve of dealing with cables, I currently contemplate the idea of making my own, since I have some experience with other cable making, especially from my PC builds. I have a quality 18 gauge wire that I use for ATX cables and I kinda wonder whether that would work for a very short XLR cable that will connect my DAC to my amp. Since it will be a 20-30 cm long, can I spare the shielding? so it would be an XLR extension cable 3-pin to 3-pin, but with only two wires in each cable, does that make sense? Thanks.

 

[Speedskater]

For the best XLR interconnects chose a Shielded Twisted Pair (STP) cable with a braided shield. But on the other hand XLR interconnect's are a robust system and almost anything will work for a short cable.
* * * * * * * * *
got any spare Cat5 or Cat6 cable?

 

[adi518]

I think I'll give it a try, which means I only need some XLR connectors now. Does the pinout makes sense?

 

[sergeauckland]

Cat 5 cable, whether UTP or STP makes great balanced audio cable. I've used it extensively at our radio station for tielines between studios and studios to racks. 4 balanced pairs in one thin and very cheap cable. I used STP for preference, as it's the same price as UTP and it's screened, but except for microphone feeds, UTP (unscreened) is fine at line level. UTP also makes good loudspeaker cable as the 8 wires can be parallelled into two, and it's quite low enough resistance for sensible 'speaker runs.

S

 

[raindance]

You can use unscreened cable as stated for short runs if the circuit is true balanced. I would twist the wires if I was you.

 

[Speedskater]

Yes, some pro-audio people are using unshielded/unscreened Cat5 cable for long XLR interconnects.
But it takes well designed input and output stages. Also they use highest quality bonded pair Cat5 or Cat6 cables.

 

[March Audio]

Why not buy some proper balanced cable. Its not expensive. Literally a few dollars for a metre length.

Just a thought.

 

[adi518]

I did. I started off with buying this inexpensive cable.

 

[sergeauckland]

Yes, some pro-audio people are using unshielded/unscreened Cat5 cable for long XLR interconnects.
But it takes well designed input and output stages. Also they use highest quality bonded pair Cat5 or Cat6 cables.

Some years ago, I visited a major radio station whilst it was being built, and noticed that all the line level audio wiring was done with loosely twisted pairs, completely unscreened, terminated onto Krone frames. No hum at all on their output, so as long as the ins and outs are properly balanced and from a low impedance source into a sensible input, like 10k, hum will be well suppressed.

Microphone feeds are different, but even then, low impedances helps to keep hum down.

S.

 

[Speedskater]

All the radio and TV stations that I worked at used Belden 8450, 8451 or similar Shielded Twisted Pair (STP) cables. All these cables had a foil shield with a drain wire. All these stations were wired before anyone knew about Shield Current Induced Noise (SCIN) but the cables didn't know about SCIN either so they worked just fine.