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Cable Geometry Question

I notice a lot of interconnect cables use 3 wires instead of 2, with 2 of those 3 wires from ground rather than signal. What's the advantage of doing this versus a twisted pair aside from lower inductance? Does it sound better this way? Kimber, for example, does this, but I believe some of their designs use 2 for signal rather than 2 for ground. And why use 2 of the 3 wires for ground rather than signal?
greg7

Showing 1 response by kijanki

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kijanki
4,452 posts
 
Twisted pair reduces pickup from electric and magnetic fields, by exposing both wires to field evenly.  I works great as long as the pitch of the twist is much shorter than wavelength of the interference signal.  I'm not sure about 3 wires, but Benchmark uses 4 wires in Quad-Star configuration.  It suppose to expose wires evenly as well and in addition it is twisted:

  https://benchmarkmedia.com/blogs/application_notes/116637511-the-importance-of-star-quad-microphone-...
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