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What cables do you use in your systems?

Kelims

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Hello, I would rather ask the question what parameters are essential for an AES/EBU 3 pin cable. So far I know that it must have 110ohm then the manufacturers indicate the capacitance of the wire (better small or big?). Then I register the cross-section of the conductor in mm2 and the next figure is the resistance of the conductor. Is there any other indication to look for?
 

Julf

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Hello, I would rather ask the question what parameters are essential for an AES/EBU 3 pin cable. So far I know that it must have 110ohm then the manufacturers indicate the capacitance of the wire (better small or big?). Then I register the cross-section of the conductor in mm2 and the next figure is the resistance of the conductor. Is there any other indication to look for?
The lower the capacitance, the better. Resistance and cross-section doesn't matter except if you are looking at football pitch length runs. Yes, characteristic impedance should be 110 ohm, and decent shielding helps as long as it doesn't increase capacitance.
 

Angsty

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Hello, I would rather ask the question what parameters are essential for an AES/EBU 3 pin cable. So far I know that it must have 110ohm then the manufacturers indicate the capacitance of the wire (better small or big?). Then I register the cross-section of the conductor in mm2 and the next figure is the resistance of the conductor. Is there any other indication to look for?
Blue Jeans Cables recommends Belden 1800F for AES/EBU service; 1800F is a low-capacitance, high flexibility cable suitable for both analog and digital usage. Star-quad cables are to be avoided for digital use.
 

Julf

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Julf said: Čím nižší kapacita, tím lépe. Na odporu a průřezu nezáleží, kromě případů, kdy se díváte na délku běhů fotbalového hřiště. Ano, charakteristická impedance by měla být 110 ohmů a slušné stínění pomáhá, pokud nezvyšuje kapacitu.
No, I don't think that is what I actually said :)
 

Speedskater

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for a AES/EBU 3 pin cable, the only electrical thing that matters is the 110 Ohm Radio Frequency Characteristic Impedance.
Mechanically the symmetry of the two central conductors and the quality of the shield also matter.
 

Rja4000

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Well...
For AES/EBU, a category 5/6/7 cable is perfect.
And cheap.
It's just a balanced (twisted pair) serial data connection, after all...
 

Angsty

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BDWoody

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Someone on Reddit mentioned that @amirm uses $10k worth of cables in his system. Lol.

Don't you use Amazon Basics, Amir?

I never cease to be amazed by what I learn about this forum from elsewhere.

It is funny how often people just make shit up.
 

infinitesymphony

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Blue Jeans Cables recommends Belden 1800F for AES/EBU service; 1800F is a low-capacitance, high flexibility cable suitable for both analog and digital usage. Star-quad cables are to be avoided for digital use.
Love Belden 1800F. It used to be tough to find by the foot and it is still somewhat expensive at around $2/ft. For longer cable runs and similar performance (and a blue jacket to designate digital if you want that), Canare DA206 is also a good single-pair choice at around $1/ft.

I've gone the other way and used Canare DA202 for a pair of analog XLR cables to test out some Neutrik EasyCON connectors. Worked great.
 
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Julf

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For Ethernet signals and transceivers, yes. That doesn't mean some other encoding will necessarily work.

So what other encoding would we be talking about?
 

Julf

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jhaider

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I've gone the other way and used Canare DA202 for a pair of analog XLR cables to test out some Neutrik EasyCON connectors. Worked great.

Are those EZY ends still around? They’re so much easier to use than others and require almost no tools. (I do recommend a Knipex Pliers Wrench or similar to close them.) But per Neutrik they never sold well.

Amphenol also discontinued their similar (not as good, IMO) “IDC” line.
 

infinitesymphony

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Are those EZY ends still around? They’re so much easier to use than others and require almost no tools. (I do recommend a Knipex Pliers Wrench or similar to close them.) But per Neutrik they never sold well.

Amphenol also discontinued their similar (not as good, IMO) “IDC” line.
As far as I can tell they did not stick around for long, just some new old stock to be found on eBay. They were a breeze to terminate, but they did seem substantially more fragile than a soldered termination. If you put your ear up to the connector and rotated the cable, you could hear the wire strands inside crunching around a little bit.

They worked well for me in a studio where I was the only one moving the cables around, or in this case connecting a cable and leaving it in place for a while, but I would not trust them to survive for long in other situations with movement like outdoors, at a gig, in a rented studio, etc.

My goal was to use them to test a variety of raw cables. What ended up happening was I put them on the DA202, loved the results, and left them on. :)
 
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