2. misc-audio
  3. 161373-1069

I have been a stickler about keeping power cables away from signal cables...on equipment ?

What I am finding very interesting, and to some extent, disturbing, is how close the power IEC inlet or power cable, is designed so close to the speaker or input / output terminals of amplifiers / gear. Many of my Hafler, Bryston and Citation amplifiers had / have this arrangement, and many of these newer and smaller chassis class d amplifiers have this arrangement. I have actually rewired ( or had rewired by a tech ) a different path separating the power line to the audio line within the chassis, and hearing a cleaner background when listening to music through these products afterwards. I am finding this to be the case, looking at photos of some other gear as well. I also believe, power switches and it's wiring, should be designed at the rear of a component, for the reduction of ac related noise, even though it might be an inconvenience with it's daily operation. Just as an aside.....I keep my gear on 24 / 7, unless I am on an out of town trip. Your thought ? Enjoy, be well and stay safe. Always, MrD.
mrdecibel

Showing 3 responses by audio2design

audio2design
1,351 posts
 
When you have a neutral and live wire running side by side, the electrical fields are opposing and cancel out if the noise is what is called "differential", i.e. what we think of as current powering our equipment. Those fields because the wires are close dissipate really quickly.

There are other currents, common mode, which travel the same direction on both cables. That gets in via ground connections, through RFI etc.  That does not cancel out and can hence create a field that has a impact at larger distances. 


Good equipment will include circuitry to filter out both types of noise. It also depends on the signal levels close by. All digital circuitry will be more immune than line level signal, which will be more immune than a phono input.
audio2design
1,351 posts
 
Studios are all differential. Jeff Smith's blurb is idiotic. Speaker cables ...
audio2design
1,351 posts
 
aural_grat10 posts11-13-2020 5:00pmPerhaps I missed it, but I don't see anyone considering that vibration in the cables/cords are as big or bigger a factor in degraded sound performance as electrical interference.


That is because no one has every presented any evidence of this for speaker cables or power cords, not even for interconnects. For speaker cables or AC power cords, there literally is not a mechanism, that short of grabbing the cables and shaking them (and even then), that this could ever make an audible difference. Even with an interconnect I think you would be hard pressed to justify it. I think you would have a much easier time justifying modulation of a connection resistance from vibration. That actually does happen, though a good connection will be sufficiently immune.

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