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Adding shielding to existing cables

So I have some interconnects that are picking up all sorts of RFi. I know this for two reasons, one, as I move them around the noisy/buzz sound changes, and two, when I switch them out for shielded interconnects the noise goes away.

so, I bought some tinned copper shielding and some new RCA plugs. I’m going to cut the existing RCA plugs off the existing cable and install the new shielding and new plugs. The thing is the new plugs have a plastic body so there is nowhere to easily connect the shielding to ground.

I was thinking of running a pigtail from the shielding and attachIng an eyelet to ground it to my preamp since there is a grounding lug. Would this work or is there a better way given what I intend to use?


last_lemming

Showing 6 responses by last_lemming

last_lemming OP
639 posts
 
@erik_squires Why “no”?

from what I am able to understand, a shield is typically connected at one end (source end) via the rca metal body or chassis.  Doesn’t the rca plug ground connect to cassis ground?  If that is the case, how is running a ground wire from the shielding to chassis any different?
last_lemming OP
639 posts
 
To be clear I have an existing Decware cable that sounds great, but is unshielded. I’m not trying to DIY a new cable from scratch. I just want to add shielding to see if that solves my noise problem. 
I have no issues with sliding a shield over the existing cable and grounding it to see if it fixes the issue. If it does then maybe I do a more permanent solution. 
last_lemming OP
639 posts
 
Sometimes I feel I’m being misunderstood or people aren’t reading through completely. No offense to anyone. 
I’m not going to hack up my cable (yet). I’m going install a shielding with pigtail I can ground to a source. I just wanted to know if that would work. 
I have other cables with shielding that stops the same noise I’m picking up from the other unshielded cables. 
That being said the cable I like is one of my least expensive by some margin so, if I ultimately hack it up, it won’t be the worst thing in the world;)
last_lemming OP
639 posts
 
So I tried tinned copper shielding with a ground wire but that did not accomplish much.

so I just went for it. I got some WTB connector, silk tubing, copper tape and reused the tinned copper braided shielding. I cut the RCA I liked up and made my own. 
Construction was pretty much as follows:

wire connected to interconnect, silk tubing, copper tape around silk grounded to WTB connector, tinned copper braiding, with another layer of copper tape around that, and finally a plastic mesh cover. 
As far as I can tell, the sound Is the same, but without all the noise. So I’m going to call it a success. 
last_lemming OP
639 posts
 
While we have to keep memory of sound and psychoacoustics into effect, from what I can tell there has been no loss of sound quality. 
last_lemming OP
639 posts
 
Steve,

before I knew about your praise for KLE connectors I stumbled upon them and Duelund wires and made myself a set of interconnects. I was quite pleased when I plugged them in and listened. I now want to make an XLR set with Duelund wires, can this be done with the helix method?
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