A cable routing reminder


If you have unshielded interconnects, be sure to keep them clear of any power cords - and power supplies. 

A few days ago, I swapped the power cord on a component. The replacement power cord has a relatively mellow signature. But after installing it, the HF started sounding etched. This made no sense. I had solved that problem long ago. This was a mystery.

It turns out that when I replaced the power cord - one of my unshielded IC’s fell from its support - directly on top of the shielded power cord. Even though the IC was laying at a 90° angle, the negative impact was quite significant. After re-routing the IC, the smoothness returned.

So, if you have unshielded IC’s, be sure to re-visit their positioning. Actually, it can’t hurt to re-visit the routing of shielded IC’s, also.


steakster

Showing 1 response by three_easy_payments

Most importantly I've found that the ICs between the turntable tonarm cart leads and phono stage/SUT to be the most critical in terms maintaining distance from PCs in order to reduce noise.  There are less noise implications I've seen with ICs related to DACs and linestages and amps....especially when using XLRs.